Eat, Pray, Love.... yes please!!!

My family has been nagging me on my lack of blogging lately.. this should be an interesting one for ya'll. Tonight... well more this weekend, I decided to take some chill/me time. Kaitland decided to go home for a quick trip this weekend, so I had the room to myself. While I was in Korea, I gained a great respect for meditation/alone time. I will admit, it sometimes is not a good thing as I tend to push people away or alienate myself every now and then. I love being alone at times though. I love sitting in my room, on a park bench, in a garden, or go for a walk and just let my mind go wild. During this time, I'm able to reflect on many things... one of the more dominating thoughts being my life and what I'm doing with it at that time and what I plan on doing with it in the future. I remember many times in Korea feeling vulnerable. That vulnerability is what helped me grow so much in a place I was so unfamiliar in. I was forced out of my comfort zone. I was broken down so I could be built up stronger, happier, more confident. I learned a lot about myself and still have much more to learn. I miss that feeling.

Tonight I decided to go rent a movie... as I walked through the movie store, I was drawn to the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" with Julia Roberts. I love Julia Roberts. I have had a few friends tell me 'Kris... you will love it, but once you watch this movie, you will just want to drop your life here and go travelling'. Silly friends... I don't need to watch a movie for that desire to come... it's a natural craving I have daily, but I will admit.. watching the movie definitely enhanced it tonight. I've always loved travelling. I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to travel to a few places already in my life: Mexico, Hawaii, Australia, China, and Korea being the farthest and most adventurous. Korea was really the only one I was able to dive into and really get a taste of the culture. Most of the other places I spent a week or two in and got an appetizer of these places, but I crave the opportunity to dive into the main course and dessert of the amazing foreign places places around the world we are so unfamiliar to. One part of the movie that I loved and craved was the way she dressed in the different cultures she was in. When you travel to foreign places, you tend to pick up different fashion trends within the country. In India, she wore a saree (traditional Indian dress)... I loved it. She had very few, simple pieces of clothing and the brand or cost was of no interest or worry. Her hair was normally worn in a bun or loosely down. Her make-up.. very simple and natural.

I've talked to my family about this a couple times, but every now and then, I have a breakdown about how I feel like this is not where I'm supposed to be. I feel like I should be experiencing that discomfort and adventure of being somewhere foreign, somewhere I am forced to be out of my comfort zone in, a place where I am constantly broken down so I am forced to look in a mirror and re-evaluate my goals and aspirations. In reality... I know it's easier said then done. I am in my 5th year of post-secondary schooling which means a lot of debt with student loans. I am in my first of two years of an amazing education program where I have met some truly inspirational people who have taught me great things that will help guide my future life and career. I am close to family and friends that love me and that I love to be so close to. So will my deep desire to get out and explore the world happen any time soon... probably not, but the passion and yearning I have to do it will probably never leave either! It will always be in the back of my mind... maybe one of the days, I will just pick up and take off for another adventure :) I hope it is sooner rather than later. We only live once and the freedom and time to do these things may not be around forever.

What's your favorite picture of your best friend?

This, my dear friends and family, is my best friend Kenzie (Sheen) Balderson. Isn't she beautiful!?!?!? That smile can light up any room!!!!! How did we become best friends? That's a great question... I'm not entirely sure. I can't name the specific moment we transformed from associates to best friends but this is how the story goes. We attended different high schools in small towns in southern Alberta. We played basketball against each other and I recently found out her parents (especially her dad) very much disliked me when it came to court play. I've heard that from a few friends' parents :) Must be my stellar defence :) We never hung out in high school, but she dated a boy that hung out with all my Cardston guy friends and one spring we went on the same group date. It was the date I talked about a few blogs ago and we all had a blast together... still there was no bonding that went on between Kenzie and I. We continued to run into each other in different social scenes, but Kenzie came into my life as more of a friend at a very critical time in my life. It was the summer before I moved up to Edmonton for my 2nd year up here. A close friend of mine at the time had some struggles in her life and decided to take most of her problems out on me. Kenzie saw this and came to my rescue. She proved to be the constant, true friend I had always wanted in my life. She was my friend I could ride the river with. We bonded instantly and she has been my best friends since that time. She has pushed me consistently to be better in many aspects of my life. She is an example in so many ways and I can only hope to reach her stellarness someday! She got married this past August and he is the luckiest man in the world! She is going to be such an amazing mother and I know she will continue to be my dear friend! I always miss her and love it when we spend time together! I will love her forever and will always give thanks for God blessing me with the most perfect best friend I could've ever asked for!

Plastic on the Windows... check

So Kait and I have been freezing in our dungeon the last couple days with the weather getting down to -25 and colder during the nights. Our roommate, Michelle, told us that we should be plastic up on the windows, which apparently helps keep the breeze from coming on... so tonight after spending most of the afternoon in front of our fire upstairs because it was too cold to hang out in our room, we decided to buck up and get the plastic up. It's still pretty dang cold, but we can definitely tell the difference with less breeze coming through the windows... I think the next plea for our landlord will be new windows downstairs and perhaps a vent in our room so we get some direct heat in our room. I can't imagine how it's going to be when it gets to -40 or -50 with the wind chill here.. I will most likely just take my mattress back upstairs and place myself right in front of the fire till it gets warmer out... hmmm I may just do that tonight!! :) Kait just told me she's wearing her gloves to bed tonight.. haha

Today was a pretty good day. I found out at 8 o'clock that my one class I have today was cancelled, so I went back to bed till 9:30... I had a good breakfast and then headed to the gym to meet up with Kait. Mr. Jermaine Bucknor just so happened to be there also which was a big surprise. Apparently his team was having some financial problems so they sent him home for a week and half and he heads back to Germany this Wednesday. It's always a treat to run into Jermaine. We met about 4 1/2 years ago and have developed a close friendship during this time. He has a great family who I love and have also grown very close with and I throughly have enjoyed spending time at their house playing games, eating delicious Jamaican food, or watching the Olympics day after day.

After working my hiney off in the gym I picked Kait up and came home to cuddle up by the fire for a couple hours before FHE. We played sock dodgeball for FHE and I just have to brag a little. I have the best FHE group. We have a good mixture of different personalities and it makes a super fun group. We have have one of the most competitive FHE groups in the ysa and don't take competitions too lightly. Yes, we did kick butt at team sock dodgeball tonight and I was exceptionally proud of my lil family!

We started doing a little challenge in our ward. We were given a calendar and are doing a 40 day fast for the missionaries in our ward. Each person is to sign up for a day within the 40 and fast for the missionaries to find and teach investigators and to have a little more success in the contacting. My day is tomorrow and I'm excited to be a part of this fun challenge.

Ok question of the day: Describe a perfect first date...

Hmmmm... well I actually have been on a date that I considered pretty close to perfect so I'll tell ya'll about that one. There were 5 couples. We were told to be up and ready to be picked up at 7:00 a.m. The boys picked us up and drove us to Cardston where they cooked us a delicious breakfast. Then we helped load up 5 quads, fire wood, coolers full of food, and a change of clothes. It was spring time, so it was quite muddy and a bit cool, but it was quite a nice day. We went mud-boggin as couples on the quads and got good and muddy!! It was a blast... after cruisin around for a while, we changed into some warmer and dryer clothes and the boys cooked us some steaks and potatoes over a fire. They brought drinks and vegetable snacks for us also. After giggling and chatting, we headed back to one of the boys houses.. rinsed off in the shower and jumped in the hot tub for a while... then we closed the night with a good movie. It was so much fun and definitely went down as my top date!!

QUOTES:

'Success if not what you are doing compared to what other people are doing! Success if what you are doing now, compared with what you have done!'

'We ARE what we think about!'

Wicka Wicka Wow Wow

Well this past weekend was pretty good. We watched a couple Harry Potter movies, watched LC play MacEwan and went to a big birthday party. Church was great today followed by a long nap after church, then home teachers, and a ward potluck. We have big plans for popcorn and a movie tonight with Cars coming over to join the fun!!

This week is gonna be a busy week of school. I have a poster and a micro-teaching lesson due on Thursday and that is the end of all assignments for this semester... then it's study time for finals! Kait and I have officially began to listen to Christmas music and I am starting to get more and more excited to go home for the holidays.

Now for my question of the day: What is my favorite movie?

This is a tough question!! I LOVE watching movies. If it wasn't considered lazy and a waste of time when overdone, I could laze around watching movies all weekend!! A lot of the time it depends on my mood. I was thinking the other day about some old movies that Lynz and I LOVED when we were kids "The Last Unicorn", "Where the Red Fern Grows", bunches of disney movies... but some other movies that pop out in my mind are "Coach Carter', 'Remember the Titans', 'Blindside', 'Shawshank Redemption', 'TWILIGHT' (series), 'Charly', 'glory road' ... oh there are just so many.... I could go on for days!!! I used to watch pretty much anything, but my older sis and her hubby made a rule to not watch movies with certain swears and amount of content and they have been a great example at sticking to this and I'm super thankful for it. It's still a challenge at times, but I can tell how watching movies and listening to music with good content can have a huge influence on the thoughts and actions we have/do in our daily lives!

QUOTES:

'You rise or fall, succeed or fail, by the self-image you hold in your own mind!"

"The price of progress is the pain of change"

New 30

So first I'll catch you up on life... School is still very busy. I have been told this will be my busiest and hardest semester and I'm hoping that's true. The work is not TOO hard, it's just A LOT! I have a poster due next Thursday and also a micro-teaching lesson where I have to pick a lesson to teach our class (pretending they're elementary students) and do it for 15 minutes. I still have no idea what I'm going to do... so my goal for this weekend it to figure that out and get my lesson plan done for it.

This past weekend Cars, Kait and I drove home for the long weekend. We left Wednesday night and it was super nice to have a good long break! On Thursday, Cars and Dad headed out hunting so us gals got together with Granny Hill and we went to a movie and shopped around a bit. We had a blast together and shared laughter and fun! Later that night we met up with Dad and Cars and went to eat, Granny's treat, at Tony Roma's. Patti, Mark and Brett came along too, which was nice! We always have a good time with Patti around! It was nice to have a relaxing day with family our first day back.

Friday I went to watch my bestie, Kenzie's basketball game at the U of L. Both U of L teams struggled which was too bad, but it was sure nice seeing the whole Sheen crew again and catching up with them. On Saturday, Kait and I had breakfast at Karie Baldry's with Robyn Fairbanks and Brett (Baldry) Nelson. It was so fun catching up with the girls and coachy and talking about old memories and giggling like old times! Then Cody Pollock picked me up in Raymond and we headed to Waterton to meet up with a crew to go hiking. We met at Scott Leishman's cabin and then headed to hike to Crandel Lake. It was a cold, windy day, but we still managed to have some fun and work up a sweat! I sure love that place! Waterton never gets old. Sunday we had dinner and Cars and Kait headed back to Etown while I kept mom and dad company some more :) We, of course, settled down to some popcorn and watched 'Amazing Race'. Monday I had to get some documents for my job I'll be starting soon and then I was off to Edmonton on my own. It was a long drive and I really had no desire to get back up here, but Christmas is coming .... trah lah trah lah... only in a short month, so I think I can suck it up for a while. We got quite the snow dump last night and today. The roads were a lil slick and full of silly drivers, but this afternoon things cleared up and it would've been a perfect snowboarding day for sure!

Ok so I have been getting a lil bit bored with my other 30 day challenge... I just felt like so many of the last ones were a little bit depressing and repetitive... so I found a new 30 day challenge... and here it is:

Day 1 — Your favorite song


Day 2 — Your favorite movie 


Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.


Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.


Day 5 – How important you think education is?


Day 6 – A photo of an animal you’d love to keep as a pet.


Day 7 – Your dream wedding.


Day 8 – A song to match your mood.


Day 9 – A photo of the item you last purchased.


Day 10 – A photo of our favorite place to eat.


Day 11 – What’s in your makeup bag?


Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.


Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?


Day 14 – A TV show you’re currently addicted to.


Day 15 – Something you don’t leave the house without.


Day 16 – Your celebrity crush.


Day 17 – A photo of you and your family.


Day 18 – Something you crave a lot.


Day 19 – Most embarrassing moment.


Day 20 – The meaning behind your blog name.


Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.


Day 22 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.


Day 23 – 15 facts about you.


Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.


Day 25 – What’s in your purse?


Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you’ve been to.


Day 27 – A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?


Day 28 – Your favorite movie.


Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.


Day 30 – A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days

So I will start with day 1... my favorite song... Well I have 2 favorite songs right now..by the same band. They titles are 'Beside You' and 'Good To You' by Marianas Trench. Cars showed me one of their songs on the way home last weekend and I just loved it, so when Kait isn't in the car (cuz she gets annoyed and my habit of playing songs I like over and over and over and over), I jam out to those two songs a few times before getting home from school :)

I loved my sis', Lynz', blog today. It was all about music and how much it means and impacts her life. We grew up with a father and mother who LOVE music. Mom more loves jamming out and dancing with us while singing the wrong words to songs haha. Dad... well I am eternally grateful to him for introducing me to artists such as James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, and many many more! I LOVE listening to music.. sometimes too much and have been trying to cut back on ALWAYS have some sort of music playing wherever I am. Sometimes we need to quiet time to just ponder things, receive answers to our prayers, or just to have peace.

Pictures!!

Happy Birthday to Brittany from my seminar group! I sure have grown to love these girls! I know we'll stay good friends for the next two years and hopefully longer after that!

Alright... so today I spent 9 hours straight working on my lesson plan that's due tomorrow. It's not too complex, but man does it take time. This one was a more detailed lesson plan... hopefully the rest will not have to be so stinkin detailed. Most classrooms are teaching with a Smartboard. It's a crazy new technological way of teaching. You can create lessons on line, post them on the Smartboard, and teach just by touching the board. It's hard to explain by typing, but a very interesting way to teach. They're starting to make us incorporate it into every lesson we do.

Carson looks like a pedophile.. we had to document!

This is our friend off the U of A team that we decided is Nash's dad... he tucked his warm-up jersey in.. lots of laughs for us.

Last weekend, we spent most of our time at the U of A basketball games, which was a lot of fun! it was nice to be at games again. I still could spend all weekend watching basketball games. Kait and I got some good pictures and had fun hanging out with some new friends. Scott Leishman, Cars, Kait, Brian Steed, and I all hung out at the games and had some good laughs. On Saturday, Kait and I attempted to be keeners and get some homework down. I was less effective than Kait.. surprise surprise, and then we got ready to head to the games again. We met up with Scott again and were joined with a huge group of ysa friends for the games and then out for dinner with a big group of us. We got sweet deals on pizza's because we did it in a group. Robyn Fairbanks, Kait, Scott and I all sat at a booth and played a straw game.. then Robyn, Kait and I had fun reminiscing about our days back in Raytown. It was fun to catch up with her and talk about some memories.

Just jamming in the car

On Sunday, we had stake conference which was great. I had a good nap after church and then we had a ysa fireside with Elder Ballard. It was an unreal fireside!! Ya'll are more than welcome to check it out on the lds.org website! It was just what I needed to hear and I'm sure there were a lot of other ysa members that felt the same way as me. After the fireside, I headed over to Shawn Elford's to watch Toy Story 3 and then came home to hit the hay. Today, as I told you, was a school write-off... and I am more than ready for this long weekend!

Kait and I have decided to wind down the night with watching 'Harry Potter 2'... I'm not sure if we will make it through the whole thing, but wish us luck.

Beddy Bye Time

Man... today I am just soooo exhausted and I'm not quite sure why. I haven't done too much today... maybe I'm getting a lil sick and I just need some catch up rest! Any hoosiers.. that's what my plan is tonight... to go to bed early!! Today was a pretty great day though. School was good. I went out for lunch with Cars and came home to get a few things done. Tomorrow I have an interview with Alta Care Resources for a therapeutic youth worker position. I'm not sure how it will work with my schedule, but it's a part-time job, so hopefully it will work with my school schedule. It would be great to get the job because they pay between $18-$20/hour, so wish me luck! I just found out tonight that I need to get two reference letters to take in too.. so I have been bustling around trying to find a couple people to write me one. So fun!!!

So tonight, I don't have much to tell about the day, but I did come across this wicked awesome video last summer and every time I watch it, I feel inspired and most times, I even have a tear or two join... so I wanted to share it with ya'll. Listen to the words please and thank you!!

This video leads me into my topic for the night....

Dear Person I Know Is Struggling The Most Right Now,

I think it's very easy for us to lose belief or hope in ourselves. If we are not constantly being reinforced by others or ourselves, it becomes easy for Satan to start prying away at that little crack until he has created a hole big enough to crawl into. The media and world today have set a standard for the ideal individual including body type, hair color, education, 'success', and many others and we are constantly haunted by these perceived standards that we are 'supposed' to live up to. Satan is a sly, deceiving being and so many of us have been brought down and manipulated into believing things that are not true. We MUST believe that we are GREAT!! Every time the thought "I can't do this" or "I'm not good enough" pops into our heads, we should watch this video, look in the mirror and say "IMMA SHOW YOU... HOW GREAT I AM!!!" I have felt power, motivation, comfort, confidence and love as I have done this. The words in this video have helped me get through some tough times and will continue to do so as I run into other trials throughout my life, but I will never give up... I was born a Comet and will always have that engraved in my heart. I will be knocked down many more times I'm sure, but just as I did in basketball... I will push myself up off that floor and rise more motivated, faster, stronger, and more determined to beat my opponent! I am great!!! AND SO ARE ALL OF YOU!!!!!! Believe in yourself and never settle for the depressing, hellish life Satan wants you to fall in to. He wants us to be just as unhappy as himself... but we are God's children and have been built to live at the CREST OF THE HILL where people can look up to us and where we can be examples to all those around us by serving and showing what true happiness is about!!!! Fight on and NEVER GIVE UP!!!

QUOTES:

'Declare a personal war with things as they are! People are champions because they think like champions and act like champions!'

'Most people settle for less than they want because they have never been taught the proven methods of success!'

'A person's mind once expanded to the dimensions of a new idea will never return to its former size!'

'YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE, AND WHAT YOU ARE, BECAUSE OF THE DOMINATING THOUGHTS THAT OCCUPY YOUR MIND!'

ok ok ok

I know... I've totally slacked off the last couple days! So here's the catch up. Last weekend I went to Calgary to catch up with some old friends and see some relatives. I drove down Friday after institute and went straight to my cousins, the Engens, house. They were having a Halloween party and I had some homework to do, so I buried myself in the guest room and did some homework while Lorena and Aaron partied the night away :) Lorena came into the guest room after everyone had left and we ended up chatting till about 2 a.m. It was great to catch up with her and chat about life. I gained some great insight and a lot of fun learning more about my auntie :) On Saturday, I went to the U of C vs U of A football game and got to meet up with my friend Brandon Strauss who is playing with U of C, but is out with a mcl injury so he got to sit in the stands with me and it was so great to see him and catch up with him. He just got back from his mission about 3 months ago and he is doing fantastic! After the football game, I chilled a bit and then went to Kenzie's game against U of C for basketball. My friend, Julie Bogle, came to meet and catch up and it definitely was one of the highlights of my weekend! We've always been the kind of friends that can go a year without talking, meet up at a restaurant and pick up the conversation from where we last left off. I learned that she was accepted into law and is really enjoying her first semester with that. We had a lot of fun catching up on life and chatting about old memories. Kenzie's team won the game and I ended up going to dinner with Kenz, Braeden, and Braeden's cousin and his wife and kid. We had fun chatting and eating some dinner. Then I went back over to Brandon's and did some more gabbing with him. On Sunday, I went to church with Brandon and was able to catch up with some other friends I hadn't seen in a while: Alida Young, Luke Sinclair, Cody Pollock, and a few other randoms. After church I went to Luke and Cody's and watched some football and then headed back to Etown. It was a fun weekend and nice to get away for a bit!! I may be doing it a couple more times before the year is over.

Today I had a big presentation and our seminar group did great. We met at the school early to make sure we had everything situated properly and it was a success. After class, I had a meeting with my mentor. He is a retired teacher who meets with a group of us each month to do reflections and help us through our student teaching. After the meeting a grabbed a quick subway sandwich and headed straight to the school I will be teaching at this year, Queen Alexandra. I observed my grade 2/3 class today and it was quite fun. I even got to help teach a math lesson. Because there are 2 grades that are mixed, sometimes that class has to separate into two separate lessons and it is much easier to do with 2 teachers rather than just one, so I think my mentor teacher was real happy to have me around. After teaching and reflecting with my partner teaching, I came home and started prepping for fhe. We did a bachelor/bachelorette lil shindig and it was a lot of fun! I was the mc with Spencer Bennett and we had fun together doing that. The whole night was a great success and everyone had a blast. We ended with some ice cream and treats. After fhe, I dropped Kait off at home so she could do some studying and I went to U of A to watch Cars play basketball with some other buddies. He, of course, killed it as he normally does. What a gifted athlete!!!

Ok so I charged and took my camera this weekend to take TONS of pics... I didn't take one... I'm getting really bad at that... but I promise I'm going to try my darndest to get better... Kaitland and I have big plans to get some fun pics very soon!!!

Now I know why I was putting off blogging.. I just check what my next topic is... :)

Dear Last Person I Kissed :),

I'm sure my family is all wanting to hear a name... but you just aren't going to get it, so just accept that now :) Whoever you may be... you studly man... you are a lucky, lucky man. I don't give them out like candy you know... well not anymore... just kidding daddy.. I don't kiss boys... not until I'm at the temple with my sweetheart ;) Ok on a more serious note... kissing.. hmmm.. well I guess you could say I have kissed a few in my days. I'll tell you this... since I went to Korea... a kiss means a whole lot more. I think that in our society, a kiss has become the new 'holding hands'... it's not considered a big deal if you kiss someone.. well depending on who you are. I'm totally ok with saving my kisses for someone special... someone that it will actually mean something with. Kisses should mean something... kisses should be special... holding hands should be special... it's the little things that count and if we abuse them to a point where we become numb to the butterflies and excitement to a first kiss, it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate where all those kisses are going to and why. So like I said... I'll wait till I'm at the alter... you all know I could do it if I really wanted to... well... I probably could... ok maybe not.. but they will be special... now more wasted kisses for this chickee :)

QUOTES:

"Two boys had polio. One ended up a derelict on the streets, the other was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. What made the difference?"

"All businesses grow to maturity, level off, and die-- unless they constantly feed in new ideas! The same is true with people!"

"Today's circumstances are the result of yesterday's choices. Tomorrow's circumstances will be the result of today's choices. Choose wisely!"