Remember when it was really cool to listen to Relient K? I go back sometimes and have myself a listen to them and remember basically all of my junior high years. Today I came across a keeper that got me into the Christmas spirit. I love this song.

My heart almost melted when this was sang a ward Christmas party on Friday. 

Oh, and P.S. happy finals everybody! Good luck! (If you're not done already)

Pin Up Girl

Pinterest cures all ailments during finals... except maybe procrastination, that one it seems to make worse. 

Thank you pinterest for making my pre-test stress just a little bit lighter. 

"You're welcome Kelsey, here's some pretty things to look at."

What a good friend.

My Pinterest.

Winter Wonderland

Today it was snowing big, catch them on your tongue, snowflakes. As I was walking home I thought how great it would be to take some nice little pictures with my roommates. Who doesn't love a good boost to their self esteem via photos? A few of us bundled ourselves up and headed out to a little red fence by our house. Aren't these girls beautiful? So glad I get to live with them.

Kennedy

(I kinda took a lot of this lady)

Taryn

Jan, or as I like to call her, Terry. 

Don't laugh at me, ok? I DON'T SMILE IN PICTURES.

Mens Hearts Will Fail Them

I had a really great weekend. I am grateful for friends and family and the gospel. I have had to make some decisions as of late and I am grateful for my certainty in those three things because it tends to make things a little bit easier.

I watched this video today and I really liked it. Enjoy!

Oh, and P.S. On another note about miracles, I found this little scrapbook I made when I was about 12. Yes, you are correct. I was in fact the ugliest child you've ever seen. I kinda look like Andre the Giant? 

The Usual Bunch of Stuff

Remember this song?

The Muppet movies were THE best and with the new movie coming out, also comes a new soundtrack! I'm sorry to everyone who's already heard about this but I can't stop listening to it. I was really happy to find out that Hayley Williams was singing on it. I will always have a special place in my heart for Paramore from my days where all I wore were vans and had pink hair. I sure love me some teen angst and they fed it for me. Listen to the remake HERE.

Other exciting things: Janna is back to Edmonton and resembles Terry Fox a great deal when she walks, it has been a year since Elder Anderson has left (crazy!), I may or may not have gotten the new iPhone and have a robotic relationship with a spunky lady named Siri, and I played ball yesterday and can barely sit because my butt is so sore.

Here's some pics to go along with all that.

Jan after taking a few too many percocets. Oh, the stories I could tell about her on these!

braces and glasses, is there any cuter combination? Maybe the additional reversible and sweat I have going on in this.

Sometimes we just leave Janna in her wheelchair.

Steve and I walking our crippled friend around. 

Siri giving me attitude.

And just for enjoyments sake I found this video yesterday from about a year ago. Miss that kid.

It's not that funny, I know... But for those who know Scott know the irony of him talking about an enema.

Mission Statement

I'm in a 100-level english class about literary analysis after a sad realization I needed three more credits in that level so I can graduate. I'm sure most people have taken a class like this and they probably really enjoyed it; I'm dying of boredom. Call it snobbery, or whatever, but sometimes I just feel like I'm a little too old for this class (at the ripe age of 20! haha). I was doing these classes about two years ago and in comparison to the other english classes I'm taking, this is at the back of my mind, or was until a few days ago.

 I sit next to a girl straight from high school who comes to class scared out of her wits.  The constant questions she throws my way every class is usually the only thing keeping me awake as my professor, for the hundredth time, pronounces predicate wrong (I sound like such a brat right now, haha). They are usually all about the course. What are the finals like? Have you done the readings before? What should I look for? Do you get what she meant last class? Blah blah blah... It was like a tidal wave every day I sat down next to her. The other day we had a conversation though, and I just can't get it out of my head. After the initial "hello" and asking about each others weekend she asked me for some advice on the upcoming essay. I told her what I generally do.

"I usually sit down and write one sentence to explain what I want to accomplish in the essay. After deciding what I want out of this, I outline the essay to such an extreme that every paragraph even has bullets of the main thoughts I have. I spend more time outlining than I do actually writing the essay because by the time I finish I look at my plan and it's practically written before me. All I have to do after is simply put together the ideas and fill in the blanks to make it look pretty. Just plan the heck out of it!"

She laughed at my response, said she'd try it, and then further said, "I guess you could say that goes along with life too."

I didn't really get what she meant at first until I kept thinking about it. I read a book this summer about "Achieving Your Life Mission". I won't really get into it too much, but I did enjoy reading it. There were activities you could do and one was making a mission statement. Like, You know those slogans that schools come up with? Most are super cheesy and about the growing of students or something? Kinda like that. I thought of the one sentence I write at the beginning of each essay. They usually go along the lines of "To portray so and so's idea that such and such exists in today's society based on blah blah's writing"and then I aim everything towards that one sentence. You know I'm all about the analogies so I decided that I was going to write that ONE sentence, that mission statement, for myself! I'm still working on it. So I guess I'm asking everyone, what would your mission statement for your life be? To be a mother? A chimney sweeper? Mel Gibson's butt? (haha, that's from Notting Hill I couldn't resist)

What are you aiming your whole life towards?

This was a really long post, forgive me.

Oh, and P.S. this is what I was for halloween! A twitter bird. Get it? haha.

No Phone = Sad Kelsey

My world has been turned upside down. Yesterday around 8 o' clock, my phone was lost/stolen/dropped and destroyed. I'm betting stolen because the little beggar knew to turn it off. Can I just say how sad I am? How lost and afraid I feel? This morning as I looked up the number for Telus (which is probably my big mistake right there in signing with them) I realized without my phone I can't call anyone. Last night as I was getting ready for bed I realized, I don't have an alarm clock. Earlier last evening as I realized my phone really was gone three thoughts came to mind at the reality of it never returning to me: 

1. All my hard work on my games is gone and I can't do my crosswords for the next day. (I was in shock, ok?!)

2. What if someone needs to get a hold of me right now. What if they were dying? What if the world was going to end if I didn't answer my phone with my own voice that very moment?! What if, you guys.

3. I have to go buy a phone out of my own pocket. Frig. I'm pretty sure my parents aren't going to regift this one...

During all my freak outs I finally got a text from my mom to a friend.

"Tell Kelsey not to worry; it's just a phone."

I hate it when she's right, I rather enjoyed throwing a tantrum and bawling over a piece of plastic for that time. 

Anyways, I'm off to go deal with this problem with a real person rather than over the phone (ewwwww!). Lack of technology makes me have to talk to people :(.  

Oh, and P.S. prepare yourselves for my halloween costume! It will be, if I do say so myself, legit.

Cool Cauliflower

I could eat pizza everyday, every meal, for probably the rest of my life. The problem with that though, is that neither my body nor my wallet can seem to afford to eat it so much. So after some looking around I've found the golden egg of pizzas! Behold, the cauliflower pizza:

example from the website.

mine, haha. I didn't really make a crust because I wasn't feeling it and decided to add mushrooms and chicken!

The crust is made from "rice"'d cauliflower, egg, and cheese! Isn't that sweet? It's only 100 calories a serving as opposed to the usual 400. Plus, it tastes great!

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon crushed garlic
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt
• olive oil (optional)
• pizza sauce, shredded cheese and choice of your toppings*

Instructions

To "rice" the Cauliflower: Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes. There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself. One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.
3. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven.
5. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

*Note: Toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO TRY THIS!

These Are My Confessions

My confession is that the only time I blog is when I'm taking a break from studying. There, I said it! I rarely think about what I'm going to say! You've caught me! I am really boring!

Ok, that wasn't a confession. Let's think of it more as an excuse for my lack of originality and excitement. I wish I could tell you I have something up my sleeve but I don't have anything to excite you and entice you and... (another 'e' word that goes along with that) you... Exhilarate? Nailed it!

So, It was my sister's birthday this week. Happy Birthday Angie! Since I don't have facebook these days I don't have any other way of being publicly thankful for my mother birthing her. For some reason Angie is the sister I remember the most as a child. Weird, right? It's scary how little I remember. I remember her taking me shopping and buyng me my favourite outfit, sitting in her apartment and watching Fried Green Tomatoes, and when she had Konner and he was a really big baby and it scared me so much I vowed to myself that day I would be at least eighteen before I had one. Still going strong without one! haha. Anyways I love my little Ang, she is the sweetest lady around. Look how cute she is! She's artistic, thoughtful, and someone you wish was pocket size so you could carry them around with you.

haha.. I love Ryker's face in the front. 

Something else I've been thinking a lot about lately is criticism. Living in a house of six girls I can't even tell you the amount of "observations" we make every day.

 "Look at this picture on Facebook, she has gained so much weight."

"I bet it's from the break up."

"I wonder why he broke up with her?"

"She was probably a psycho, I mean from what I've seen."

(that was a hypothetical conversation... just in case you were wondering.)

Come on, admit it, we've all been guilty. I'm guilty a lot. So last night as I was thinking about this I also thought how regularly I criticize. I kept thinking about all the negative things I'm saying every single day and then the phrase I've heard my whole life came to mind. 

Fake it 'til you make it. 

That sounds like an instant failure right? How can someone become a nice person if it's not genuinely from the heart? Well I'll give you a far-fetched example.

I'm in an Educational Psychology class about education and society. I have about 60-80 pages a day of readings just for the class and if you don't do the them you will, guaranteed, fail it. The text is really really dry and is packed full with case studies and stats, and I can honestly say that I was almost in physical pain the entire time I did those readings. One day I decided that I was going to psych myself out of hating this class. "I love educational psychology! This stuff is so interesting!" I would tell myself everyday before I'd crack open the pages. When I'd come to a case study I would say to myself, "This is so interesting! I never knew that had such an effect on blah blah blah!" I was constantly boosting myself. Whenever I'd have a chance I would talk about this class with anyone so that by teaching it I would learn it better (side note: you retain 98% of all that you teach. So if you're studying grab someone and start teaching it to them). I would sound super excited and try to make them interested in the material just so I would in return be interested. I felt retarded at first because I knew deep down I hated this material more than I hated toe socks, but suddenly over the past month I've gone from a deep hate to really enjoying this class. I wish I could write a whole blog post just on what I've learned. I've come to love ed psych, even if I had to trick myself into it.

Going from that, there are a lot of people I really just do not like. Everyone has that kind of person that annoy them to no end. I know I'm definitely that to some people. The key I think though is to psych yourself out. "Ok, she annoys me but she can be really good at... and I like this and this." Just fake it until you make it. Look for the good in people and in situations until you can finally see it without effort. You cannot become something until you at first try being it.

Alright, that's all my thoughts for today. 

Thaaaaaaaaanks.

This is a thanksgiving post. I'm always a day late on this kinda stuff and I've tried to avoid this since most posts around this time fall under this category but I just can't help myself so if you're sick of this stuff you can stop reading. Also, I've come to realize that I'm a very visual teacher so bear with me and all of my pictures. 

I'm thankful for:

great friends.

a cute family

Jordan reminding me of that one time I aspired to be a rapper.

Old pictures... what's on my head?

When old people forget to take the tag off their sunglasses and wear them around. If you look really closely you can see me snapping the pic. I'm so stealth!

On a more serious note I've been really grateful lately for worthy priesthood holders. I'm so glad my friends have married wonderful guys in the temple who love and respect them. I'm grateful for a wonderful dad and just the wonderful men in general around me. 

...I'm also grateful for sweet potatoes and my mom's oatmeal cookies.

Oh, and P.S. Should I do this? I'm about 90% serious.

Warning: A Boring Post

I don't really know what to say today I just feel like I need to blog. Does anybody else feel like they have that looming cloud over them that they need to produce a funny, original blog post? I do. Well today's gonna be a disappointment. The sky is overcast and my furnace doesn't work so I'm feeling rather lethargic-- not to mention I just ate a dozen cookies so I'm a little sick too.

A song I've loved for a while that I can't get out of my head today:

For some reason this always makes me want to write a sad little love song. Shout out to the Smart girls who introduced me to the Stars a long time ago; I first heard them in your basement.

And a movie I can't get out of my head:

Great show.

And a trailer I can't get out of my head:

Something I am dying to see. HERE.

How Come...

I was looking up something for school today. I started my question: "How come people..." This is what came up:

It brightened my hump day. 

Oh, and P.S. I dotted (and in one case arrowed) my favourite ones.

First World Pains

Sometimes life is so hard. People just don't understand what I have to go through! Here are some of my troubles I've had to face lately:

1. When my car windows aren't tinted enough and I have to pick my nose as sneakily as I can during a red light hoping the person beside me can't tell.

2. When I'm on the red river and craving my favourite ice cream and it's sold out in the store.

3. Drive-Thrus. They stress me out. I feel like I'm driving through an obstacle course every time. I'm trying  turn the corner, role down my window, grab my money, and turn down the music. Plus, simultaneously rehearsing my order so I don't have to repeat it more than once and can get that stuff in my mouth as quickly as possible.

4. Oh, and don't you hate when the cashier gives you a big pile of change and you can barely hold it in your hands and feel that you have to hurry your very fastest because she's already putting the next customer's things through? I just feel so rushed. Let me organize my wallet in peace!

5. When my sock half falls off my foot but I'm in bed and I just can't find the energy to reach down and fix it so I have to worry about it until I fall asleep.

6. I put my burner on too high today and burnt my grilled cheese sandwich.

7.I never got retweeted by Rainn Wilson when I tweeted him the other day. It was such a waste of a funny line.

8. I made Eggos, got dressed while they were in the toaster, and then forgot about them and had to eat them cold. It just didn't feel right not having the margarine melted before I put the syrup on.

9. My battery is dying while I write this blog post and my charger is across the room.

10. When you're playing on photo booth and you accidentally have it on video.

At least in the first video I'm with someone, but this one is just plain sad.

Oh, and P.S. please note that I am one hundred percent joking in this post... mostly.

Over It

I feel like this year is going to be a big change. I've moved, I've decorated, I've studied more than is natural for a first week, I've cried, I've had sleepovers nearly every night, I've ran, I've spoken up, and, when I really feel like giving myself a treat, I've sprawled out on the couch and watched Love it or List it. For me September is always the big one.  I'm always making goals and cleaning out my closet (and I'm not sorry momma... eminem anyone?) But really I do. This year was the annual cleanse of junk in my life. First up was clothes this year. Usually my mom whisks away old things and I never think about them again but this year she took them to a family that needed them and the next day I had a girl at my door thanking me wearing my bright yellow jacket I used to love. I looked at how excited she was and I just felt so satisfied. As I was thinking about it later a quote came to mind from a conference talk (I can't remember which one?). It goes something like"We all have burdens, but it's our choice whether or not to have baggage". I thought of all the unnecessary "stuff" in my life. I thought of Facebook, which I can't seem to let go haha, and texting, and, as much as it pains me to say, the TLC channel. I decided that I was going to, over time, delete these things from my life and that I'm going to do great things this year. I'm going to ace my Shakespeare class even though originally I had no hope... Who am I kidding I still don't have any. I'm going to speak up to those when I feel I should. I'm going to be studious. Like, really really studious. I'm going to be opinionated in the right moments and silent too. I'm going to stay active and be happy. I'm going to get rid of things that don't add value to my life. I'm going to finally do what I want to do and what I feel I should do because frankly sometimes I look back at my life and can't get over the depressing feeling that at some points I really wasted it. So, as both The Hills characters and I like to say:

 "I'm over it."

And I'm moving onto things that are actually going to make my life worth living.

Oh, and P.S. sorry for this cheesy post. I blame it on all the ink shedding I've done in class lately. Here's an even cheesier quote to go along with this. :) haha.

Source: frenchbydesign.blogspot.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Crafty Cat

A summer description via phone pictures:

I was in a fake relationship for a whole day. My popularity went through the roof!

I tried to make a sculpture of janna.

Kelseys w/ braces!

I whipped out the double donkey.

I sat here a lot.

I was in a triathlon! Ok, ok, so I watched one. It kinda counts?

I hiked twice the whole summer haha. And my legs looked weird?

I grew to hate auto correct.

I wanted that thing around this ladies license. "Peace, Love, & Kittiness"

I showed off my assets in Idaho.

I became a baby whisperer.

H-tubbin.

I finger painted allllll day.

I visited Edmonton.

I painted children's faces.

I took pictures of Mitch's unnaturally long leg hair. Sorry you had to see this.

I made a little owl!

I bought these books for $27, regularly $80. Holla!

I took a picture of all us girls with fake red hair.

I said bye to my bud.

And then today I did a whole bunch of nothing:

I drew a bike.

I drew some bird cages and trees.

And then I drew a bike on a map.

I was really proud of myself. I am the least artistic person you'll ever meet so this was big.

It’s time for me to say goodbye to Southern Alberta. I always have mixed feelings this time of year. I can’t wait to go off and feel productive, but I also miss all the great food company at home. Today it rained and it was a nice little farewell gift I think; that kind of weather is my favorite. This was my last summer at home (hopefully?).  Next summer I’ll be in school and by the one after that hopefully I’ll have a job and be living somewhere else, or preferably in another country travelling while I wait for the next school year to start. Here’s to dreaming? Haha.

 Goodbye Magrath. You are the cutest little town, even if you have really bad mosquitoes and really crappy roads. You have been good to me this summer.