It's a Passion

Today I woke up, ate a hearty breakfast of banana bread that I made at midnight last night, and then got to cleaning.

 I spent just under four hours cleaning my apartment.

I cleaned every room (besides the other girls rooms...), washed the windows, and even cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer.

I don't know what it is...

Maybe it's that I can just zone out and focus on my music, usually Frank Sinatra or Adele radio on Pandora.

Maybe I'm a little OCD and I just love the feeling of making things clean.

I do know...

I was raised in a very clean household and since moving out, I've inherited my mother's traits of keeping a home clean.

I feel so much better about everything when I'm living in a clean space.

I'm excited for my parents and my older sister and her family to come visit and see me living in my apartment. Maybe that's what possessed me to spend an entire day cleaning.

It was a good day.

It made me happy.

Everything is clean.

Now we'll see how long it lasts...

Prepare to fall in love and then tap your toes

 

Brooke Fraser.
Love her.

My Kind of Day

8:00 - Good morning world!

9:30 - Interview at the Alumni Office. Best interview I've ever had, I kicked booty ;)

10:15 - Deep cleaning my apartment. This may or may not have included a little bit of dancing around and singing to Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora.

11:00 - Phase 1 of making Oreo Truffles

12:00 - Lunch time! I made a delicious turkey panini.

1:00 - Grocery store for some meal ingredients

2:00 - Phase 2 of making Oreo Truffles. This was the fun part :)

3:30 - Watched some t.v and painted my toes

4:30 - Got a call from the Alumni Office offering me the job!

5:00 - A visit to my sister and niece to drop off some treats and visit
6:00 - Home for dinner, and SYTYCD
7:00-9:00 - An amazing amazing amazing episode of SYTYCD!
7:30 - Tears streaming down my face because of Melanie Moore, my favorite from the beginning

Great day.

Wanted

1-3 female roommates.

MUST KNOW HOW TO:

Keep the apartment clean. This includes...

a) wiping down the counter after you flood it with water, crumbs and/or sticky things

b) Sweep the floor, especially if your idea of wiping down the counter is pushing your crumbs to the floor

c) do your dishes - clean them out and then put them in the dishwasher. If the washer is full, wash them out and wait until you (or another roommate) unload the clean dishes.

d) take out the trash - and then put another trash bag in the trash can (novel concept...)

e) put away your blow dryer/straightener/curling iron/towels/etc.

f) vacuum the floor on occasion

g) put away your food after using it and/or eating

Please no inquiries if you don't feel as though these are common courtesies.

I'll be especially interested if you can keep your room clean and free from growing weird smells.

On second thought,

I think it's time Kathryn Norman, Haley Adams, Emily Chandia and I invest in an apartment of our own.

What Dreams May Come

Hold fast to dreams

for if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly

Hold fast to dreams

for when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow

-Langston Hughes

________________________________________________________________

I dream that I can be a stay at home mom, playing with my kids, cooking, cleaning, baking for the neighbors, doing crafty things that make all of my friends jealous.

I dream that I can be a working woman, getting up early in the morning and exercising before putting on my pencil skirt and heels and driving to my office in the city.

I dream that I can go on a mission - somewhere foreign - and teach, convert, and baptize.

I dream that I can go to grad school or law school or dental school or med school.

I dream that I can travel the world - a new adventure every break from school I get - to India, Greece, Italy, Bali, Argentina, France, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, and on and on.

But most of all...

I dream that I can be happy, successful, content and in love with wherever life leads me.

I dream that I will do the best that I can do in whatever I end up doing.

I dream that I can have trust and faith in the plan that there is for my life and that I can be patient with the things over which I have no control.

I dream that I can spend my days honestly happy and able to focus on the things that truly matter.

________________________________________________________________

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. 

Circumstances and situations do color life but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be."

John Homer Miller

It's over

I survived the semester.

When I got my textbooks four months ago and went to my first week of classes I thought for sure I'd die before the end. Yet, I prevailed, even if I ended up being life-less and sleep-less the majority of the time. 

I made it.

This calls for a JB (Justin Bieber) packing party and celebration party with my girls.

That's a wrap, folks!

five-oh-eight - spring semester

We finally had our roommate pictures taken.

Talk about last minute!

 Katelynn

 

Christina

Megan

Haley

Kathryn

Yours truly

Procrastination

It's finals week.

That means one thing:

I'll find any way and do anything to procrastinate.

Today that meant coming home from class and spending an hour and a half deep-cleaning my apartment.

I even washed down the trash can...

Who does that, you may ask?

Well, yours truly.

Not only do I love cleaning, but it's even more enjoyable when you're putting off something that you really really really don't want to do.

I worked up an appetite with all of that cleaning, so I turned to my next form of procrastination:

Cooking.

I made an insanely delicious lunch today...

A cheese and chicken quesadilla (chicken that I cooked last night for dinner, shredded).

I even contemplated going to the store to get an onion and sour cream, but I just couldn't fathom procrastinating that much.

So now that I've been home from class for nearly two and a half hours, deep-cleaned, cooked, and blogged, I think I have no choice than to start on that horribly haunting English project.

Who wants to go get some ice cream?

Harry Potter

Warning:

You're about to discover just how big of a nerd I truly am. 

A lot of people think it's ridiculous, the obsession. I'll agree that a lot of people get out of hand with dressing up, standing in line for hours on end, and so on and so forth, but it's all for good reason.

I, like millions of others, grew up with Harry Potter. I don't remember much of my life before Harry Potter existed, besides my family, of course :)

My mom worked for Scholastic, so she was in the "know" when the first HP book came out.

I was hooked as soon as I was old enough to read the first one.

I faithfully read the books and went to see the movies.

When the seventh book came out, I read it in three days.

I think I only put it down to get just a few hours of sleep and to shower.

I can't even count how many times I cried while reading it.

Just before the last chapter, I closed the book, set it down, and just sobbed.

It was the end.

Never again would I read a new word of a Harry Potter book.

SPOILER:

Needless to say, I expected to be the biggest baby at the end of the movie.

Rather, I cried the most when Snape died, and even then it was just a few tears.

In the end, I could not stop smiling. I was so happy.

It was almost as if I had spent the past ten years fighting Voldemort with them (I'm being sarcastic, people!) and in the end, I was relieved and just so happy.

I'll look forward to reading the books over and over again throughout my life, and following them with weekend long HP movie marathons with my teenage kids

(I know, I know, they'll probably hate them, but I can dream.)

Thanks for growing up with me Harry, Ron and Hermione :)

Kathryn Alene Norman

Sometimes we sit on the balcony and attempt to do homework.

Sometimes we lay on the ground in her room talking while falling asleep.

Sometimes we wrestle and I get rug burn on my knee.

Sometimes when we walk home from class people stare because we're just that cool.

Sometimes when I can't sleep we cuddle.

Sometimes I say the funniest things in the world when I'm around her.

Sometimes she sings in the shower and can't remember the words.

Sometimes I'll serenade her with some John Mayer while I'm in the shower.

Sometimes we realize just how alike we really are.

Sometimes I think about how lucky I am to have met such an amazing friend.

He Knows Me Better

He knows every one of us is learning as we go, His love is the compass that guides us home. 

In a world of voices that say they have the answer, I escape the noises, close my eyes, and I turn to the one who sees all the pieces put together.

He knows me better.

Spontaneous Trip to Washington

Last weekend was an adventure, that's for sure.

I took an unexpected and quite spontaneous trip to Washington.

My five day weekend consisted of:

1. Seeing Elder Elias Warndahl

2. Time with my parents

3. Family BBQ's at the lake

4. A date night with my parents and Bonney Carter :)

Go see Midnight in Paris - It's amazing
5. The Farmer's Market
6. Sleeping in!

7. The Fourth of July

8. FIREWORKS!

 9. Watching a faulty firework go off and set an field on fire

10. 26 hours of driving

 

The weekend of my favorite holiday was definitely a success and it was worth it to go home.

Hopefully next year I won't be sitting behind a tree when the fireworks start...

(thanks, dad...) 

 

It was a fun weekend and well needed break to gear up for finals :)

My Favorite Holiday

Independence day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

*From Wikipedia

 

One day I'll sit right there and watch those fireworks.

It's on my bucket list :)

Happy Fourth of July!