"Good Job Eileen!"

As many of you know, my Aunt Eileen lives with my parents. I recently moved back to Cedar City, and have had the opportunity to spend some time with her. She has always had a habit of internalizing the word "good." If ever we're talking about how the movie was good, or how the food was good, she will always say "Good job Eileen!"

When my Dad was serving as a Bishop of a married student ward, he spoke one time about this habit that Eileen has. He made a wonderful point, and these past few days I have really thought about it. He said that instead of being so pessimistic about ourselves, we need to internalize the word "good." We need to tell ourselves "Good job Katie!" or "Good job _______ (fill in the blank)!" Instead of beating ourselves up about little mistakes we make, we need to remind ourselves that tomorrow is a brand new day, and that we can continually try to change and become more like our Father in Heaven.

So, the next time I'm feeling down on myself I'm going to say "You're doing good Katie!" I think that by doing so, I can be a happier person and have a more optimistic perspective on life. Feel free to join me in the "Good Job!" movement. :)

Sombrero Expedition

My cute friends Katie Lee and Katie Hawkes and I went on a sombrero expedition. We went to the mall and tried on every hat we could find. There are some cute ones, some ridiculous ones, and some crazy ones. We had so much fun! Horay for the Katies!

Classic!

So I work with a little boy, named Austin, and his family has a pool in their back yard. We spent a whole day in their swimming pool and were doing tricks and making up games. MacKinzie, Austin's older sister, and I were competing to see who could stay on this beach ball the longest. Here is my attempt...and the fact that I'm putting it on the internet for all to see proves how the entertainment of others is much more important to me than my self respect. Feel free to watch it numerous times.

Great Friends

If I have learned anything in this past year, it is that I have fabulous friends! In Arizona and in Cedar, pretty much everywhere. I am so grateful for them all and don't know where I would be without them. Here are some people that mean the world to me.

The Ranch Chicks. I worked with these girls in Idaho two years ago at Elk Creek Ranch. Some of my best memories have been made with these girls. By the way, their names are Brianna Haynie and Krista Isom.
Kendra Haynie, I don't need to explain why I love her.
My new friends Katie Lee and Katie Hawkes, who both informed me of a little known fact: Everyone needs a Katie.

My friends from left to right: Corey Gillett, David Packard, Rustin Foster, and Tyson Hugie.
My cousin Brittany Lewis at my Aunt Eileen's 50th Birthday party.
Austin (the love of my life and little boy I work with) and his sisters MacKinzie and Madison. These people have become my second family here in Arizona and it is going to be hard for me to leave them.
My awesome friend Annalies (a.k.a. Bib)
Jerika Barnes, Saryn Haynie and myself at my birthday party in Cedar City.

I love reflecting upon my life and recognizing how truly blessed I am. I feel so loved by everyone and it's a good feeling. I wish I could put a picture of everyone that has changed my life on here, but I know there wouldn't be enough room.

Raspberries!

Lillian is by far my favorite niece...ok she's my only niece, but I love her guts! Because I love Jen and Alec and their kids so much, I basically live at their house about 2 days a week. I was babysitting Lily whil Eric was at Pre-school and was blowing raspberries on her tummy. She was laughing that genuine gut laugh and I couldn't resist getting it on video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Safest Bathroom Ever!

I recently embarked on an adventure that included wheels, a couch, people, and a giant hill...yep you guessed it, we rode the couch down the hill. It was all fun and games until our last run, when we tried to fit as many people as we could on the couch. I chose the front, on the bottom, thinking it would be the safest. Boy was I wrong! Half way down the hill the homemade dolly shattered, causing everyone to catapult forward and land directly on me. My left leg is a gigantic bruise, but it's a great story.

After our grand adventure we went to Filiberto's, a mexican restaraunt where you can play "What's in my meat today?" I made a visit to the restroom to check out the damage from our crash, and felt very secure in this ghetto little restaraunt. Three locks on one door. I've never felt so safe in my life...then I left the bathroom.

Boys and their Pyromania

One very important lesson that I have learned over the years, is that boys like to play with fire. It doesn't matter whether it's an actual fire, fire or relationship fire, or flirtation fire, etc. Someone managed to bring an extra dresser (or they stole it from some homeless guy in the mountains that only had a dresser and a fish-hook to his name) and decided to put it onto the fire. A common equation for boys: Fire+Something to make it Bigger=Happiness.

Now, not only do they have to make the fire bigger, they have to profess their manliness by hitting it with something, physically jumping over it, or seeing who can handle the heat the longest. Do I understand it? No. Do I laugh at it? Yes.

HUZAH FOR FIRE!

Camping! Camping! Camping!

I don't know about you, but I love camping. I love smelling like campfire and bushes. I love singing and coughing on the smoke. I love squatting 18 times by 17 different trees to relieve myself. The whole experience is just....(sigh)...wonderful!

Jesse Pettit is playing my guitar behind me and it looks like I have a wad of gum in my mouth...but I don't.
Very few people know what this is. It's called a campfire. According to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary it's: "a fire built outdoors (as at a camp or picnic)." Also, few people know that fire has the magical ability to blow smoke in the very direction that you are sitting. No matter how many times you get up to move, it follows you, just like that weird boy at church.
Oh look at me, looking all mildly amused at the fact that I'm taking a picture of myself by a fire. How cute!
Jesse and I. Random pose....
Just finishing up the peach cobbler left-overs from the night before. Yummm!

New Updates

I realized that I haven't put too much on here since I started blogging, and thought maybe people would want to know what's going on in my life.

Some of the most exciting new I have is:

1. I got mooned recently.
2. I decided to move back to Cedar City this summer.
3. I had a weird dream last night that made me mad at a few friends of mine.
4. I have a new obsession with Slushes from Sonic.
5. My dodgeball team is doing fairly well.
6. I rented "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"

Some people might think that it's sad that my exciting news isn't all that exciting, but sometimes life doesn't hold surprises around every corner. Growing up I always wanted to be older, I always thought that life would be more exciting with age, but unfortunately I have found that it's harder to be surprised. When I was a kid, everything was invigorating and exciting. I always had a new adventure every day. Trials were more of a challenge than a burden. Now, I feel like I have to lower my expectations if I really want to be pleasantly surprised about anything. This comes off as pessismistic, but it's actually the opposite. If I lower my expectations before I go to a movie, I come out thinking "That was what I expected" or "I loved it!" Before, I would go in thinking it would be a great movie and came out mad that I had wasted 9 bucks on a film.

I expressed my new view of life to my sisters and brothers-in-law, and Barrett kindly responded: "Just don't do that when looking for a husband." He made an excellent point. I need to expect more from things that will altogether change my life, and expect less from everyday indulgences.

I hope this doesn't sound like I hate life and I am disappointed all the time. I am actually loving my job, my ward, my family, my friends, and so many other things. Life has been very good to me, and moving to Phoenix has given me a greater appreciation of that. I feel like I've changed for the better down here, and I will continue to grow and change no matter where I live, or how many times I am mooned.

Ideal

I wrote this song a couple of months ago, but I still really like it. It's a simple song; one about falling in love with the idea of someone and not the real person. I have been guilty of falling for the idea of a person, but this song is about being on the receiving end. It's hard to let go of someone that thinks so highly of you. I wondered if anyone else would ever think that way, but I knew that staying with this boy wasn't the right thing, and it wasn't fair to him. Long story short, I broke up with a great guy, and wrote this song about it. Enjoy!

I've Finally Joined Blogspot!

Hello to all my beautiful friends and family! I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of your blogs and learning what's new and changing in your lives, and I figured it was about time for me to follow suit.

For all of you who don't know, I am currently living in Gilbert, Arizona, and I really love it. I live about a mile and a half away from Jen and Alec, so I get to see them just about every other day. Audrey and Barrett live only a couple of hours away, so I get to see them about every three weeks. I love being close to them and in a new place.

If you are wondering why I moved to sunny Arizona, I will tell you. I was going to school in Cedar City, and I liked it, but I felt like I needed a change of scene, and I also wanted to see how I would fit in in a different community. Moving here has been one of the best decisions of my life. It has definitely been a challenge, especially with the roommate scene, but I feel like I have grown a lot. I have also learned a lot about myself.

I am attending Southern Utah University online, and I am supposed to graduate in May with my Associates of Science. I am also working for Lauren's Institute For Education (L.I.F.E.). Through them, I work with a little boy that has Down Syndrome. He is basically the love of my life, and the only boy that I truly understand. Once I started working with this little boy, I realized that I would really like to work with people that have disabilities for the rest of my life. I checked out my options and found the best possible fit for me. It's called Music Therapy. For those of you who don't know, I write music and am currently working on a demo CD to submit to recording companies. Music is my life and I have always wanted to do something with that as well. Music Therapy is pretty much summed up in its name; you provide therapy through music. It focuses on speech therapy, physical therapy, fine motor skills, self-help skills, cognition, social interaction, and communication. I auditioned at Utah State University for their program about 3 weeks ago, and I have an audition this weekend at Arizona State University. I am hoping that I get into at least one program.

That is about all the important stuff that is going on in my life. I don't have a boyfriend, nor am I really interested in anyone, so there is portion of drama that I don't have to deal with right now. :)

I hope that all of you are as excited as I am to continue to see your blogs and keep up with everyone!