Finals...crunch time :)

Well the end is in sight... actually the end is cruisin my way! I'm done 1 final and have 2 more left. This week just flew by.. probably because I was busy juggling work and school which was pretty intense! Work is going really well! It definitely is a job that will keep me on my toes. Last night I worked at the Meadowhawk home. There re 2 boys and 1 girl. The girl is 10, one boy is 9 and the other is 10 with a age 2-3 mentality. The 10 year old was gone most of the day, but when he got home... tensions started rising. He apparently has the tendency to pull his pants down and threaten to pee on the floor or on you... well this was one of those nights. He stood at the top of the stairs with his pants down saying "Funny? funny?"... then let it go... yup.. pee down the stairs. Thank goodness my team leader, Michelle, was there to handle it, cuz I just am not sure how I would've reacted on my own. We made him clean up his own mess after changing into some fresh clothes. Good times. The other two kids and I had a blast in the afternoon. They're super sweet!

I was supposed to work my first night awake shift tonight, but had a bit of an issue with an eye infection. I went to see the doc today after having some issues for a few days (even though my mama told me to go right away) and found out I have a pretty bad infection. So I have some eye drops now and I'm sure it will all be ok soon enough... well I hope!

Tonight I went to Geof Crebas' work Christmas party. We get to the building and there' s a table filled with jewelry boxes and aromatic reed diffusers. The lady goes "You can pick a jewelry box and whichever diffuser you'd like. The gentlemen get a gift card from the tree"... ummmm SWEET!!! I got some super cute earrings and a necklace and some yummy smelling diffuser! It was a pretty high class party and was fun to be a part of!

My plan for the rest of the weekend.. well studying for sure. Maybe do some Christmas shopping tomorrow. Hopefully finding a lil time to go to the new Harry Potter movie with Scott... and maybe get some chill time too! Then it's home time come Wednesday afternoon :) Whoo hoo!!!

A photo of an animal you wish you could have as a pet...

I have always thought that tigers are such attractive, strong, and confident animals. I love seeing them and I think it would be awesome having a pet tiger. Now, I know they can be quite dangerous, so of course my tiger would be declawed and would never attack me because he/she loved me that much! I think it'd be pretty cool :) (HINT HINT: Christmas is coming... trah la trah la... right daddy and mommy!! ) :)

Work, School, Gym, Eat, Sleep..

My title is a description of my life these past few days. I got a job at AltaCare Resources as a relief floater meaning that I will be working in the group homes. When a full-time staff worker is sick or on holidays, they give me a call and ask if I can come in... it'll be nice because it's flexible and I don't have to work if I am too busy with school or away. The only bad thing is not knowing when they are going to call, so I'm assuming it won't always be a steady income, still any income is better than none... so I'm happy. This week I have done the training for work Tuesday-Friday from 9-5. It's nice because we get paid for going to these trainings.. perfect time... right before I go Christmas shopping :) I have come down with a bit of a cold, which has added on to my exhaustion this week. I wake up every morning with my eyes close to glued shut with eye boogers and shuffle off to work for the day. I also have been kicking my own butt in the gym this week and haven't been this sore since I did the Jillian workout back in Korea last spring... so that has sure felt good too.

Last night I had Scott Leishman come over for dinner. I made some stirfry... my first time... and I think it was pretty successful. It's pretty hard to screw up with a bag of pre-mixed stirfry veggies and pre-cut chicken. The hardest part was trying to decide what sauces or spices to put on and being patient for the rice to be done cooking. Scott has two full plates, so I'll stick to assuming it was a success. Then we watched 'New Moon' with Michelle and Land. Scott pretends like he can't stand it, but secretly I think he loves the movies and is just as into them as us gals :) The 3rd movie comes out this Friday, so guess what we'll be doing Friday night!?!?!? You guessed it... watching 'Eclipse'. We have a 'Santa giveaway' Friday night from 7-10 where we bring any clothes or food we don't/won't use and take them around different families in need, so we'll start the movie after that :)

How important do I feel education is?

Well I grew up with the belief that school was one of my top priorities. Now this was not always the case in my life, but the stress and importance put on education has had a huge influence on the path I have taken through high school and college/university. I am in my 5th year of my post-secondary education and although I have never been a real lover of school, I do enjoy learning. I have found that when you are learning about something you truly care and are passionate about, it is a lot easier to be interested and put your whole heart into listening and learning in different classes. Not only is school education important, but I also think it is important to be well educated on a spiritual level also. I know that the more knowledge I receive and am reminded about with the church, I am more prone to live a happier and more motivating lifestyle and am able to share my beliefs and knowledge of the church with friends, family, and associates I am around daily. Education, in a broad sense, in important and can help us get a lot further in life in we use it in a positive and effective way.

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.