cinco cosas.

well, the novelty has officially worn off.

it's hard to come up with five things i'm grateful for each day.

but there are always five things to be happy about.

and that is all i have to say.

a letter

dear kristen penwell (nee carlson):

today is your lucky day!

as you know, it is tuesday.

and as you know from your previous enrollment as a student at byu-idaho, and as a roommate of mine, it's SCROLL DAY!
which means it's KRISTEN AND KELLIE SCROLL-BASHING DAY!
[the following headlines are, as always, very real and very facetious]
-"Laptops connect to Facebook on campus network"

[hasn't this always been the case?]
-"Canned food provides charity, dates"

[i don't even want to know.]

-"Cell phone use disrupts library studies"

[duh.]
-"Stories come to life on the big screen"

[WHO COMES UP WITH THESE TOPICS??]
-"Rexburg 'bubble' is a rarity and a blessing"

[i'm not even going to talk about this one.]

in closing, i would like to include a letter to the editor entitled "Rebellion, sense of entitlement drowns out the Spirit of Ricks" [author's name withheld for his own personal protection]. enjoy.

"It is unfortunate that a spirit of rebellion persists on the BYU-I campus, which in turn drowns out the Spirit of Ricks and the Spirit of the Lord. From those who knowingly choose to wear flip-flops, to dresses and skirts which do not reach the knees, to those who save seats before devotional.

Do those who save seats before devotional somehow feel entitled to do so, and is that really what the Lord would have us do? To some it might not seem that big a deal to save seats or even slide a little on the Honor Code, but it certainly shows a lack of spiritual integrity to the simplest of principles: obedience.

None of this is meant to pass judgment; I only mention this because of the pervasive attempts by the adversary to lure us to think that 'all is well, yeah [sic] Zion prospereth.' We hear prayers on a regular basis that we will do the will of the Lord; yet, how simple a principle: do not save seats before devotional? Will we maintain a spirit of rebellion, as did Naaman, when Elisha told him to bathe seven times in the river Jordan; and because it was simple, it seemed to be too difficult to follow the council [sic]? (2 Kings 5:10-14).

The first law of heaven is obedience, which is a simple concept. After all, by 'small and simple things, are great things brought to pass,' even if one can't save seats."

seriously?! someone actually has a problem with this?? and has the gall to liken saving seats at devotional to the story of naaman??

this dude is WACK.

kristen, i think it's safe for me to say that you are missed dearly!

until next week,

kellie

ps: here's another gem: "I've fought that stereotype with the violence of a cornered raccoon..." oh, dear.

yesterday and today

saturday:

1. staying in bed until 3:7pm

2. relief society broadcast

3. 11:00pm sojourn to broulims

4. singing motown all the way back home from said sojourn

5. blackberry lemonade

sunday:

1. answers

2. getting through sacrament meeting without making a huge mistake on the piano

3. watching a sarah mclachlan concert dvd

4. being interrogated by an fhe brother

5. phone call with my big sis, kari

now i can finally go to bed! i just barely finished my graphic design homework and i told myself i had to compile my lists right after that before things got hazy and i forgot what happened over the weekend [which happens often].

much love.

yesterday's list.

1. winco with emperor justinian.

2. watching america's funniest home videos and almost peeing my pants.

3. peach yogurt + the best granola in creation.

4. getting 13000 points in skee-ball. i'm out of practice.

5. waking up very, very late.

-------------------------

in other news...

-the relief society general broadcast was tonight and it got me so excited for conference next weekend! can you believe it's been six months already since last conference?? i can't!

time flies, my friends.

time flies.

-i'm afraid i'm lactose-intolerant.

-sometimes it's okay to spend your saturday in pajamas...

IF you're doing homework.

right?

i can make you dance.

1. pepsi throwback.

2. FINDING MY PATRIARCHAL BLESSING IN MY SPANISH BOOK OF MORMON!

3. remembering jonny vulture's hilarious anecdote during class that he shared with me yesterday and laughing out loud.

4. "brother toone, kellie keeps passing me romantic notes!" -- guy in my 19th century art history class

5. project runwaaaaaaaay!

this blog post contains one list and one list only.

1. finding out my sacred art class was cancelled--thus pushing my group's presentation back another day!

2. modern family!

3. laughing and laughing and laughing with friends.

4. aaron tripping accidentally and then breaking into a sprint to cover it up. HILARIOUS.

5. twizlberry.

what a great day.

be happy now.

today was a day of ups and downs tos and fros and backwards and forwards.

today was a day of anxiety and reassurance, annoyance and fondness, impatience and patience, frustration and satisfaction.

today was a day of realization.

my time in rexburg has been rocky [at best]. i've met some incredible people and made the most amazing friends, but i still have ill feelings for this place.

after five years of being here, i still hate hearing people singing disney songs at the top of their lungs whilst walking down the street.

i cannot stand the knee-deep snow and bone-chilling wind.

weekly clean checks are completely unnecessary and ridiculous.

and if i never read another scroll in my life, i will be satisfied.

but i also

love going to ramires at midnight, eating a texano and talking about life with my friends.

i love laughing so hard my sides hurt.

i love talking with my roommates until the wee hours of the morning.

and i love the person i am when i'm here.

today i weighed my personal pros and cons against each other and had this overwhelming feeling that true happiness comes with accepting and loving the stage of life you're in at the moment.

i was frustrated all day today with all of these insignificant annoyances in my life and found myself wishing i could be married or graduated from college or anywhere but rexburg, idaho.

but at the end of the day, after some long, meaningful talks with good friends, it hit me that very soon i will be done here.

one day i will leave this place forever and embark on a new journey.

i don't want to look back on my time in rexburg in a negative light.

i don't want to feel like i wasted my time here.

i don't want to miss out on anything anymore.

and i most certainly don't want to wish my life away.

tomorrow [or today, rather] is a brand new day with endless possibilities.

and i'm starting afresh with a new goal that will be implemented using this blog.

every day i will post five things that made me appreciate this phase in my life.

my mom always says that you can find five good things each day even on the worst days.

and i know that to be true because i've experienced it before.

so, here is my list for today:

1. staying up way too late talking to my roommate.

2. going to the library with friends, eating cookies, and enjoying every minute of it [even though every minute of it (mostly) was spent studying].

3. getting set apart as the ward pianist.

4. eating the same meal for lunch and dinner [soup].

5. figuring out what to be for halloween [possibly R2D2]

this is incredible.

we watched this video in my history of illustration and graphic design class today and it was so enthralling and incredible.

enjoy.

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

this one's for you, dad!

isn't it great when you're feeling kind of miserable and lonely but then friends stop by your house and make you feel a million times better?

yeah, i think so, too.

[the symphony bar/toasted almond/dark chocolate chip cookies helped, too]

WOE IS ME.

this morning i finished my homework before noon so that i would have time to do something fun tonight.

right now it's 9:00pm and i'm baking cookies and wishing i hadn't done my homework so quickly because i'm so bored and i have zero friends.

patheticsville.

in which i see scott pilgrim vs. the world and embarrass myself.

i just got back from seeing scott pilgrim vs. the world.

remember this post from winter semester about whip it?

I FEEL THE EXACT SAME WAY ABOUT SCOTT PILGRIM.

you all need to see it as soon as humanly possible.

and hopefully when you see it, you won't sit behind a huge guy and tickle his arms accidentallyonpurpose.

here's the story:

this giraffe sat in front of me and kept shifting in his seat every second causing me to shift in my seat every second so i could see around him. at one point in the movie, he draped his arms around the backs of the chairs on either side of him and was sitting so erect that he blocked my line of sight entirely.

so i nudged my roommate, tanya, and pretended to tickle his arms as a way to get him to move and i didn't realize that his left arm was draped lower than his right and i ended up tickling him FOR REAL.

talk about embarrassing.

BUT, he moved his arms and sat low in his seat for the rest of the movie.

mission accomplished.

something funny happened to me on the way to the kirkham

today at approximately 7:56am the weirdest thing to happen to me in a while occurred.

i was minding my own business walking to my mesoamerican art class [which i love--when i'm not sleeping] when allofasudden this guy in a red shirt walked towards me and started waving. i had no recollection of ever meeting this guy, so i looked really confused. but he kept waving! and finally he said, "hi, kellie!"

i stopped dead in my tracks and couldn't even think of anything to say because this total stranger KNEW MY NAME.

but then i looked behind me and another girl was walking towards him.

her name must have been kellie/kelley/kelli/kelly, too.

so, after standing in the hallway for what seemed like an hour, i scurried off to my class only to find that the total stranger was in the class, too.

earlier this evening, my roommate tanya and i were taking the trash out and he was walking through the parking lot! right in front of us! so tanya said hi, and he saw me and practically ran away.

on our way back to the apartment i told tanya the whole story and she was laughing so hard at the irony of the whole ordeal.

and that's when i realized that sometimes life is just funny because if it was serious all the time, it would be boring.

stuck in my head.

i found myself humming the following songs throughout my day:

this song gets stuck in my head every time i'm in my 19th century art history class.

i'm in the right place.

this song is so perfectly applicable to me right now.
remember how i didn't want to come back to rexburg?

well, i don't know if it's

my roommates,

my classes,

the vitamins i'm taking,

or

the sleepytime vanilla tea i drink every night before i go to sleep,

but i am enjoying myself here.

my classes are awesome.

every

single

one

of

them

[even my intimidating spanish class]

.

i feel completely at home in my classes and have even made comments [GASP] during our class discussions.

i'm learning so much and i love it already!

also, i just got called to be the ward pianist which i'm psyched for!

and it's 11:15pm and all my homework is done!

it's a christmas miracle!

[or an answer to prayer].

speaking of answers to prayers and tough spanish classes,

i was feeling anxious on monday night because i knew that i had spanish the next day.

talia [bless her heart] texted me at the perfect time and i told her how i was feeling sick because of all the anxiety felt about that class, and she told me i wasn't giving myself enough credit.

i denied that and told her i just wasn't smart enough.

as i was reading my scriptures a few minutes later, i came across a passage where nephi was talking about how he was keeping a record but wasn't quite sure why. but he trusted in the Lord and knew that as long as he remained righteous, he would be blessed by the Lord.

i had a little asterisk at the end of the verse that led me to the bottom of the page where i had written the following who knows how long ago:

"The Lord sees things that we do not see. He sees potential in us that we don't see in ourselves. But His commandments to us are 'for a wise purpose.'"

it was the perfect statement for me to read. i was filled with this overwhelming gratitude for that little piece of wisdom and i realized that even though the Lord didn't command me to take this class, He sees potential in me and knows that i will be fine as long as i put forth my best effort and remain faithful and rely on Him. i may not get an A [in fact, i probably won't], but i will get the satisfaction of a job well done because the Lord helped me.

i guess it just goes to show that...

"if you like where you're living,

if you like what you do.

if you like what you're seeing

when you're looking at you.

if you like what you're saying

when you open your face.

then you got the right feeling.

you're in the right place."

it is done.

i'm sitting in my room, listening to some nice music and relaxing with some sleepytime vanilla tea after my LAST FIRST DAY OF FALL SEMESTER.

for the most part, it went well.

i was reminded over and over again that art history is for real the best option for me right now.

and i was also reminded, conversely [?], that spanish is definitely not right for me as a major.

today i had my mesoamerican and 19th century art history classes and i love them already! my teachers are both so enthusiastic about their subject matter and excited to teach us.

on the other hand, i also had my spanish culture and civilization class and felt like i was going to throw up the whole time i was there. it's been a long time since i've had a spanish class. it's been well over a year. but even though it was stressful and overwhelming for me to be in that classroom, something my professor said really hit me. he said that as long as we prepare for our classes faithfully, we will be given the help that we need in order to succeed in all that we struggle with. that really comforted me and motivated me to work hard and do my best so i don't have to take this stupid class again.

in other news:

-first day of school crush has been found.

-my roommates are beyond awesome.

-i made some delicious tomato sauce tonight with fresh tomatoes from the jorgensen family garden [thanks, mom!].

-NO CLASS TOMORROW!

-there was a CRAZY rain/hail storm earlier this evening! beautiful.

-i can't wait to go to my new ward and my other art history classes!

jitters!

i have my outfit picked out,

my bag packed with school supplies,

a playlist to accompany throughout the day,

and i'm super nervous.

some things never change.

even when you're twenty-three years old in your fifth year of higher education.

pray that i make it to my eight am class tomorrow!

ta-da!

my room is officially decorated!

i'm super happy with it!

my side of the room

close-up of shelves

desk

and last, but most certainly not least, my life-size poster of jamison olave.

and in other news...

i got a haircut!

also, school starts tomorrow! my first class is at 8 am.

pray that i wake up in time for it.

written in a hotel room in pocatello, idaho

well, tomorrow is the beginning of the end.

i move into my new place in rexburg tomorrow and thus start the last fall semester at byu-idaho.

i have to say, i'm very excited for this.

i can't wait to graduate and i can't wait to leave rexburg for the LAST TIME EVER next july.

but i also want to make the most of my time while i'm here.

even though i've lived here for five years now, there's so much i haven't done.

hard to believe.

so, here is my college bucket list:

-visit yellowstone and see old faithful

-go to mesa falls in ashton

-see a movie at the drive-in

-go to the haunted swing in rexburg

-bridge-jumping at monkey rock

any other suggestions?

i finished something!

behold!

a finished product.

[this pillow was the inspiration.]

it is FAR from perfect [please do not look too closely],

but now that the dust has settled and i'm looking at it more and more, i've come to realize that it has grown on me.

i've grown accustomed to its face [ala henry higgins]

in fact, i love it.

imperfections and all.

and i think we all know it wouldn't be a true creation of mine if it was perfect.

right?

--------------------------------

in other news...

-i head back to rexburg on sunday[!] and even though half of me is dreading my impending return, half of me is excited.

only three more semesters. i can last that long, right?

-i got a haircut! it's a whole lot healthier and shinier and softer and that makes me happy.

-i'm reading mockingjay right now. it's been harder for me to get into, but i'm still enjoying it.

-who's been watching project runway this season?? how psycho is gretchen?? how awesome and adorable is mondo?? and how incredible was it to hear tim lay down the law?? i can't wait to watch the new episode tonight.

with kari.

and smores.