Missin' My Missionaries

I've been writing back and forth to quite a few of my friends, and man I miss them. So I'm just gonna put up a picture and write a little blurb about each of them :)

Brendan Cannon:

Serving in the exotic Des Moines, Iowa Mission. Ha he loves it though. He's an amazing friend, one I've had since seventh grade. His letters are full of gems of wisdom and advice and humor. Getting letters from him MAKES MY DAY. This is a picture of our unit right after we won state. Brendan is the one bending over backwards in front of us :)

Grant Nordine:

Serving in Oooooooklahoma. I don't have a picture of the 2 of us, because our relationship is weird....I've only ever met him once or twice. He's my best friend Alexa's best friend. But we get along extremely well. We have almost the exact same sense of humor, and his letters are packed full of poorly drawn pictures and witticisms. Since I don't have a picture of the 2 of us, this is one of him and Alexa :)

Andy Chaparro:

Andy is in the Osorno, Chile mission. I've known Andy for a while. He's one of the sweetest, most caring people I've ever met. He dated Kenzie for a while, and we got pretty close during that. This picture is of us out in Mendon watching a baseball game and waiting for fireworks the summer before I left for Snow. It was an amazing night :)

James Mitchell:

James is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Man I love this kid. I went to my first dance with James, and we had a blast. He's HILARIOUS. For example, in his most recent letter to me, he drew a picture of Godzilla destroying the town of Tokyo on the back. Super random, but appreciated. This picture is pretty old. It was taken at my 18th birthday party.

Kadie Clark:

Kadie was my roommate my first year at Snow. She's serving in Ukraine. She's absolutely amazing. She's one of the nicest people I've ever met, and she is so stinkin cute I could die.

Todd Partridge:

Oh Todd. He's in West Virginia, I believe. We have been through a whole lot. Case in point: This is a picture of us together after we got in a car crash in Logan canyon on the way home from Bear Lake. The airbags kind of tore our faces up, so this picture is SUPER attractive. But he's wonderful, and I miss all the crazy stuff we did together.

Sam Bennion:

Sam is in Forks, Washington, which is ironic. Ironic because he despises Twilight so much he's been on public radio to talk about his hatred for it. His letters are the best. They're full of pictures and hilarious stories and anecdotes. They go on for pages. This picture is of us in Washington, D.C. for We the People. I don't really know it happened...but we decided if we made a movie poster called "Cousins: The great frontier." He's my cousin. :)

I'm also pretty freaking excited to start writing to a couple people who will be leaving soon, namely Alli and Mandy. This is the two of them. Alli is on the left, Mandy on the right. I love both of them :)

Alli is going to Nicaragua, and Mandy is going to Peru.

I just really miss them all, and am excited for them to come back!

Today

has been absolutely marvelous. I haven't done anything exciting. But I feel like I need days like that occasionally.

I listed over a hundred books of my dad's on Amazon. He said I could keep whatever money I got, so that's nice :) I played my favorite childhood game on nick.com for a good hour (Spongebob flip or flop). My dear friend Caitlan FINALLY got a facebook, so it's much easier to keep up with her crazy adventures. My mom and I had grilled cheese for lunch. I took my sister out for ice cream. These all sound so trivial and stupid, but they've just made me super content.

In other news: 10 DAYS MOFACKLE!!

The End of my To-Do List

I finally reached it. I've felt like I had so much stuff to do this past couple of weeks, and I think I'm all caught up.

I finished school, got my final grades, and am officially done with Snow College.

I received a job offer, and accepted it.

I completed a drug test, health assessment and hearing test for said job.

I faxed in all my paper work.

I finished unpacking.

I've got to spend some time with friends.

I visited Dano.

I booked a flight.

All that's left to do is pack, but I've still got two weeks before I need to take care of that.

I'm ready to move on.

Day o' Love for Mothers.

Dear Mom:

I love you so very much. Thank you for making me a driven, competitive, always-wanting-to-do-better person. Thank you for pushing me. I'm glad we have the relationship we do-from idle gossiping to any number of deeper conversations. Thank you for putting up with me, and sticking by me. Thanks for standing up for me. Thanks for everything, really. I love you, and always will. Thank you.

Love,
Kates

Dear Tessa:

You helped me through a time in my life when no one else could. You gave me confidence and the ability to work through hard times. You believed in me. I don't think I would have made it without you.

Love, Katy

Dear Judy:

Thank you for being my fictive mom. Thank you for letting me walk into your house, talk to you about anything, and allow me to be a part of your family. I appreciate everything you've done for me so much.

Love, Katy

Dear Sheri and Tori:

You two kept me coming back. Thank you for being non-judgmental and being two people I could look up to. Thank you for letting me do my own thing, but always being supportive. Thank you for always shooting me that little text, just to know that I'm being thought of.

Love, Katy

There have been so many mothers in my life that I'm thankful for, and wouldn't have made it without. None of them follow my blog, but I still wanted to express how much they've done for me. I love them all dearly, and especially my own mom.

I love moms :)

A Reintroduction

I feel like this past year has shaped me. It's changed me a lot, and made me a different person. So I'm just going to make a list-because that's what I do. Just a list of random facts that may or may not have been true before this year, but a majority of them will definitely be new.

Things that still are and always will be the same:

I am afraid of the dark.

I hate feet.

I like serial killers.

I am EXTREMELY competitive. Almost unhealthily.

Some new, some old:

I gag when I laugh.

I like falling asleep with the light on, but waking up with it off.

I really enjoy Lady Gaga.

I'm very reluctant to ask for that help.

I have a knack for writing, when I put actual effort into it.

I also have a knack for dropping things when I cook.

I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life-I still don't.

Maybe I never will.

That thought scares me.

Fewer things in life make me happier than receiving letters.

I'm a closed off person.

I'm a pretty dang good judge of character.

I have a temper, and can hold a grudge.

I'm not as smart as I think I am.

Some new:

I put other people's feelings first too much.

The person that I project to others and the person I think I actually am are 2 very different people.

That's all I got for now.

Struggles

Last year leaving Ephraim was a piece of cake. I finished my finals on Wednesday, packed up and headed home, without shedding a single tear. I couldn't have left that town faster if I'd tried.

This year was completely different. As Robyn and I left Ephraim, my eyes welled up. We said goodbye to the Maverik. We said goodbye to the Wal-mart and the Subway. Now I come here and hate the Maverik, Walmart, and Subway. Because they're not my stores.

We met at Robyn's to drop her stuff off and say our goodbyes. I hugged Robyn, fought back tears. Then I hugged Dani. And I couldn't stop it from coming. I started crying and shaking. She kept saying "It's only 3 weeks." I can't do 3 weeks.

I don't think I've ever got this close to someone. Dani and I talked for almost an hour and a half tonight on the phone. I hung up and just thought for a while. As weird as this sounds, my hurt literally hurts being away from her. She's my best friend, and I just get so sad whenever we don't talk.

Kind of off topic here-on Tuesday I went shopping with my Mom, and we stopped at both Walmart and Subway. And I got so sad when I was in them. They were all wrong. My walmart is small and friendly and people don't try to beat you up to get to the shelf. My walmart has an adorable greeter named Gene that always wishes you good luck on your finals. My Walmart has Jane the check-out lady. My Walmart never has lines more than 2 people deep. None of that was the same. This Walmart SUCKED.

The same thing happened at Subway. My Subway has garish, bright yellow walls with old newspaper print on them. My Subway has that girl I always complain about. My Subway has no modern art crap on the walls. Even though there were things I didn't like about both places, like the girl who makes my sandwich crappily, I still much prefer everything in Ephraim.

I don't know. I usually don't take change this hard. I guess it's still kind of surreal to me. It still feels like I'm on a long vacation, and come Sunday I'll pack up, take off, stop in Riverton to pick up Dan, and be back in Ephraim in a lick. But it's not going to happen. I have no idea when the next time I'll be in Ephraim is. And I absolutely hate that feeling.

I'M MOVING TO MINNESOTA, SUCKAS!!

That is all :) I'm just really excited about it. I leave June 6th!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end....

at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. I keep trying to tell myself that something good is going to come from graduating. I'm trying to be positive. But this freaking SUCKS. I miss Snow College. I miss my roommates. They are some of the most amazing people I've ever met. I don't know how I would have made it through this year without any of them.

I look back at the posts I originally made about them here and here.

But here are my new posts :)

Celeste:

Celeste was so easy to talk to. She is extremely genuine and wants nothing but the best for everyone. You know how in church people always say to try and look at other people through God's eyes? I think Celeste has got that down. She very rarely has anything negative to say about anyone. She is so enthusiastic and vibrant and excited about life, which I envy. She is empathetic and just wants to help people, which she does on a regular basis. I love her :)

Robyn:

Ha. What can I even say about Robyn? Truthfully when I met her I thought she was going to be super high maintenance and kind of preppy. And she's kind of the opposite. She's that person who changes into sweats the second she gets home. She eats large amounts of food-CHAMPION! She is gracious. She is hardworking and dedicated to whatever she is doing at the time. She's driven. She's going to open up a bed and breakfast, and I have no doubt that it is going to be a raging success. She'll make it work. She gets addicted to things super easy-so we make her swear to never try anything bad. She is probably the friendliest person I've ever met. While Dani and I are perfectly content to not meet anybody and just go about our business, Robyn is out and about and meeting people and making connections and just being all around fun. Too bad she's from provo.

Dani:

Jeez. Dani is my best friend. I can honestly say that I've learned so much from her and am so grateful for her in my life. I gave Robyn and Celeste little cards that talked about how much I liked them where I got all gushy. But Dani's card was pretty much just filled with random memories-there were A LOT of them. But she really is amazing. She's someone I look up to and trust. She is one of the three people that knows absolutely EVERYTHING about me, and yet she still chooses to accept me for what I am and what I'm doing. She means the world to me. I started crying like a baby when I had to say goodbye to her. We're so similar that it sometimes clashes-but not often, and we always get over it. She's like family to me. She's always willing to help people, specifically me. She's one of those people that you just automatically feel comfortable with. It doesn't matter what you're doing, or how wildly inappropriate you may be getting, it doesn't ever feel awkward. Maybe that's just because we are close, but I don't think I can remember a single time. Anyway. she's amazing. I love her.

I lucked out this semester with roommates. I'm going to miss Ephraim so much. I won't ever take another class from Professor Jensen, or go to Maverik at three in the morning. I won't ever make a wal-mart trip in less than five minutes, because all the other wal-marts are too big. I won't go in my church building anymore. I won't ever get mail from that box I faithfully checked every day. I'll never do so many things again. This chapter of my life is closed, and I already miss it terribly. I feel empty knowing that I'm not going back next year. I've got the next 2 years of my life planned, but all I want is to go back to Ephraim, and be in junior college forever. I would be so content with that.

Snow college was an amazing place. I'm so grateful that I decided to go there, and that I got to meet the people I did. I truly believe that things happen to you for a reason, and that you are supposed to learn something from every encounter and experience you have. Snow was a giant learning experience for me, and I feel like everyone I met there played a significant role in shaping who I am right now. For that reason, I'm happy. Because I like who I am right now. I'm just sad I won't be there anymore.