What Christmas means to me...

FAMILY, MY SAVIOR AND MAKING MEMORIES!

Since I have been done with school (Wednesday, December 15th) I have been kind of busy. It is nice to finally relax and catch this blog of mine back up to speed.

Thursday Dec. 16th - I cleaned up my entire apartment to get everything ready for the next semester. I bleached down every wall and prepared the house for a new roommate. I have no idea of her name or her interested but I just know she is moving in Jan 1st.

Friday Dec. 17th - I spend the day packing for a trip to Boise as well as a trip back home to Arizona. When I was done packing, I went and picked up Alicia Steinfeldt from her house and headed to Brad Gravatt's apartment so we could head West for Boise. Brock, Brad, Karson, Alicia and I headed to Twin Falls for the evening with one of the guys' friends. We went bowling that evening and had a blast make memories. Alicia and her bowling skills, Brock and his dance moves, Karson and the ability to take himself out with the bowling ball, Brad was pretty normal, and their friend and his ability to fart like no other. The night ended with a trip to the only thing open in Twin Falls at midnight, BK Lounge.

Saturday Dec. 18th - We then headed out to Boise! Grab the tickets from my Uncle's house and head towards the blue turf for the Humanitarian Bowl game. When we got to the game we hooked up with Lyndel Anderson and went to grab food at Wendy's. The six of us went to the game and I believe had a great time cheering for everyone and anyone.

From there we went to dinner at Mongo Grill. That was definitely an interesting place because I definitely was weirded out by the way we had to put everything together. Raw meat with veggies and then these Mongollian guys took it and added sauce to it and cooked it. Like I said it was kind of weird. From there we went to Lyndel's friend's house and watched Despicable Me. Basically everyone fell asleep, we were definitely exhausted from this whole trip. We headed back to my Uncle's house, unfortunately they had a cat, and I forgot about, so the sleeping arrangements were kinda easy. The boys shared the bedroom, Alicia and I shared the blow up matress and Brock slept in his car. Alicia and I stayed up extremely late and talked about a lot of things that were going on in each others lives.

Sunday Dec. 19th - Drove home from Pocatello. Hung out with Alicia all day. We first went back to my place so I could pack for a bit until church was out at 2pm. At 2pm we went to church so I could go through my tithing settlement with Bishop Sutton. After that, I went with Alicia to her house for dinner and some games with her family. Like I said I spend the whole entire day with her. When we were done hanging with her family, we began getting ready for the evening. We both go dressed and ready and afterwards went over to Taylor Jenson's house to play some games with friends. It was most definitely interesting because we really did not know anyone there that well. Once we had enough of that, I took her back to her house and headed home for some good rest before the journey home to Arizona.

Monday Dec. 20th - I spent the morning finishing up packing and getting ready for a fun night with the ward and our christmas party. Alicia and I finished the afternoon off by doing some shopping at our amazing mall. When we were done there, we went back to my house and got ready for the evening. That evening was a Ward Christmas Party, with food, a slideshow and a white elephant gift exchange. It was a fun ish evening that ended not too bad for either Alicia or I. I ended up with a wall hang candy dispenser and toy story gummies and she ended up with swedish fish. She dropped me off at my house and left. I finished packing, finshed with the car and waited to see if someone actually cared. After waiting for two hours, I went on my way to start the journey home. And oh was it a long one!

Full of snow and bad roads. I got as far as Nephi, before I decided that it was not worth it to go any longer. I stayed in Nephi for a couple of hours and started back on my way.

Tuesday Dec. 21st - This entire day was spent driving South towards Mesa. At about 6pm, I finally pulled in town. I got to see my mother come out to the car to greet me and say hello! I then, went inside to see the entire family sitting at the dining room table (My Nana, Grumps, Dad, Brother, Uncle and his friend). We loaded up the car and went to Hero's Bar, where I put down my first drink since this past summer. I had a Mai Tai and definitely needed it, it put on some definite relaxation that I needed. But it did not feel right

Moscow Weekend Trip!

Weekend adventure North to Moscow, Idaho! I got to see my first Boise State Game and they kicked trash on the Vandals, it was awesome.

First, I ventured West to Boise. To see family and go to school at the Meridian Campus. I haven't seen my Uncle and Aunt for over 5 years and my Cousin Clint for 13 plus. Clint looked great and is married with a kid! She is the cutest girl in the whole wide world. I was horrible to and taught her how to lick up ranch out of the dish at the resturant. It was amazing to see them and catch up, I miss seeing family and can't wait to start one of my own. I also went to school and took my test before heading north to Moscow. I got to see Nichelle Daigle, catch up with her and see how everything was. It was a good time for sure, especially having the chance to BASH on the school. (No offense ISU)! After my test I began the drive to Moscow Idaho.

This trip, I was able to meet Ryan Sargent and catch a Boise State Football game! Fun times for sure. It was a true test of my religion and my character and I needed it something fierce.

Extreme Makeover Experience

August 20-25th, 2010: The ABC crew of Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in Pocatello, Idaho! Local members of the community were given the opportunity to volunteer their time and money to help this family out. I jumped on board as soon as I could, however, did not get to volunteer from the application process. I got an even better opportunity, I volunteered through the Walgreens Cooperation.

The first night, Elle and I went down to the set and kind of were more like Walgreens Promoter Girls! It was a lot of fun for the first couple of hours. We were recommending flu shots, handing out sunscreen, giving pain relievers and putting stickers on EVERYONE! We stayed a couple of hours but mainly went there to check it out.

Sunday night, Elle and I went down to the house again and this time we were prepared to get dirty and sacrifice. We showed up to the site and it was beginning to pour in rain. So, we began the night off by holding wooden poles up to shield the open parts of the building from the rain. And that was interesting because there was two little girls holding two massively heavy poles up and having little success without others' help.

The next thing we know, we are being pulled to the front of the house, so that cute girls can be at the front of the house to help move pavers around to set up the lawn. After a while, of lifting heavy loads of dirt, pavers and scratching our acrylic nails - we moved on to new jobs.

Next job, was helping the vinyl roofers on the back side of the house. And yes, I helped roof the house and it is still standing. That's right still standing! From there, we were so sick of being outside that our efforts went inside the house. And we then learned how to lay wood flooring as well Elle learned how to put a door on the house. We don't need no stupid men to get the job done, we are muscle women and independent thank you.

Sunday night ends and then Monday school does. I decided that this once and a lifetime experience, was better then getting sleep and being well rested for school. When school was done on Monday, I went home put my junk clothes on and went back to the house. Yes, day 3 at the house. And this was just cleaning things up outside, as well as beginning to move stuff inside the house to be decorated. I moved in decorations and furniture all night long.

Ended up not leaving the house and stayed there through the night. At about 6am, Channel 6 arrived to do some interviews of workers and unfortunately, I know Stuart Summers and got pulled aside to do the interviews about the house.
Interview 1 - Kathryn Channel 6
Interview 2 - Kathryn Channel 6
When I got done being highly embarrassed, I took Stuart through the house and showed him several details, which I apparently was not really supposed to do OOPS! At about 8am, the design crew showed up to the house and the final work began. The family was suppose to come home at about 1pm and we had an entire house to decorate. PROBLEM!

Actually the designers leaned on my shoulder to help them out. Apparently they trusted me because I spent the last 4 days at the house and got to know them. They actually asked me to head up decorating one of the rooms in the house. I was told to get all the camping gear, plaid material and the grill and take it to the outside patio, and my job was to make a PLAID PUKE room. I was absolutely shocked but did as I was told and got three people to help me with it. It was a cool thing to work on because it was an outdoor patio overlooking the front of the house, where thousands of people were gathering together to see the bus move!

This is the view we had from the house. It was extremely cool to see them set up all the filming crew as well as crowds. And I can not tell you how many times we watched them practice, MOVE THAT BUS! I would say at least 30 times. It began to get annoying, but they had to get the perfect shot of it, so the more shots the better the chance of getting the footage right.

Finally, the limo arrives with the family and I am still inside the house. Right as they are about to move the bus, we are finally allowed out of the house to see the commotion. It was extremely nuts to see the production. When the bus moved, I rush out of the traffic and went home to change into my Walgreens attire so I could go to work. I was so exhausted and definitely ready to sleep for three days straight.

It was a great experience and something I will always remember! I met great people, celebrities and got to experience some life changing things for the Marshall Family.

Marshall-Spreier Family Extreme Home Makeover <- Link to the episode

This was a cool experience and I am glad I did it. This is was when I was painting the little girls' bed and Ed walks into the room and helps out. It was really fun and cool to see the hott Aussie in person.

Here is a house tour of the final product!   Marshall - Spreier House Tour

Halloween Weekend

This weekend began on Friday morning with little sleep and a brain crammed full of details regarding Cardiovascular issues with medications for the test, I has at 9 a.m. Cramming that night seemed like my best way of completely my test the following morning accurately to get the best grade possible. When my test was done, the weekend finally began!

Friday NIGHT!

After a well deserved nap, I started the transformation into a Bumble Bee! I curled my entire head, sprayed my hair to be yellow and black and wore my cute little bee outfit for the night! Tonight's party was at the Institute Building and it was a BIG dance!

This dance was put on extremely nicely! I was able to catch up with several individuals I haven't seen in quite a while. I was able to see Mary Wharton, a sister missionary that taught me, she was dressed up as a pregnant nun. She was there with her boyfriend, Brandon Call (Love this kid)! I also was able to connect with a bunch of friends and have fun dancing. Got to love institute dances and the fun times that come with.

At the end of the night, I went to grab food with Trevor and Logan at McDonalds and Robertos. After stuffing our faces, Logan and I went back to my place and watched the movie the New Daughter starring Kevin Costner. Late night and it finally ended at 4:30 am!

Saturday NIGHT!

The entire day was spent catching up on sleep, studying and preparing my talk for Sunday's Sacrament. About 7pm, I began the transformation again into a Bumble bee, this time straight hair and no hair spray paint. It made it a lot simpler time getting ready and a less gross sticky clean up like the night before.

A group of us consisting of: Taylor Jensen, Drake Taylor, Andy Price, Logan Gull, Travis, Kenzi, Jill, Dallen Parker, Marcus, Taigan Neibar and I. All got dressed up and met up at Dallen Parker's house to do the finishing touches on some of the boys' costumes before heading out to Idaho Falls for the Regional Activity. Some of the things we had to get ready for the boys were their makeup, yes I said makeup... Drake Taylor had lip liner, mascara and eye liner on for his costume. While some of the boys we had to help create fake mustaches and side burns. It was a blast putting them together before we headed out! We finally left the house about 8pm to head North, looking like this.

Kenzie, Me and Jill before heading out!The entire group on Saturday Night!

The one hour car ride to Idaho Falls was a comical one for sure. We sang, talked about short engagements, church, and how college was going for everyone. When walking into the Stake Center which this activity was held at, we realized right away this was going to be different then the dance we had the night before. There was activities around the stake center going on as well as a dance in the gym (which didn't start til 10pm). So instead of being party poopers and heading the other directions. The 12 ish of us, got in the middle of a group of kids and had a dance party. It was like a High School dance when we showed up, no one was dancing, everyone was kinda standing around wondering who was going to ask them to dance with out moving around at all. Needless I say, we showed up and got the awkward stare from everyone, wondering what we were doing there. It was GREAT!

Throughout the night, there was activity type things going on and I swear someone from our group was always participating in them. Karaoke, Push Up Contest, Ballz-est Guy and Dancing the night away!

Push Up Contest - And look we beat the boy to the Left!



Taylor getting his Karaoke on



Marcus telling Jill, she was her childhood crush!



By the end of the night, we were all covered in Bubbles (from a bubble machine), sweaty, and pumped about making the activity a blast! But lets just say two nights in a row of dancing in heels with no sleep - it got to me for sure! I was so exhausted and was ready to sleep til Noon on Sunday.

Channel Four News Crew Assemble!

Taylor, Logan, Dallen and Andy went as the news crew from Anchorman!

Sunday!

The fear was tackled Sunday at about 12:45pm when Sacrament started. I was asked to talk on Missionary Work two weeks ago and that weekend was here. I gave my conversion story, my testimony on missionary work as well as my testimony knowing this church is true and this gospel is a testament that Jesus is the Christ! I love this church and was proud that Sunday I did not ball my head off from like I did at Stake Conference. 

Got to START somewhere

Where to begin...? My life is here, it is here in Idaho. I thought I would never say that, or at least would be the last one to do so. Idaho though is not that bad actually. I came up here in 2007 on a Soccer Scholarship to be ISU goalkeeper. Unfortunately my college career was cut short with a Spinal Injury in 2009. The better thing that came out of that though was making it into Pharmacy School and getting baptized a member of the LDS church.

I currently am in the Riverside Ward where I am a Ward Missionary and thoroughly enjoying my calling.

After one year of Pharmacy School and a summer Medical Course, my life has been pretty hectic and I think the only thing that has been consistent is the amount of work the Professors keep throwing my way. I am in my Second year of Pharmacy School, where I am a P2. I work at Walgreens, where I am able to truly see my hard work in school pay off.

Right now the weather in Idaho is shifting, one week ago we were at 60 degrees and now we are down to 20 degrees at night. With the next 4 days looking like SNOW filled ones. Yesterday, I got my last dry (warm ish) camping trip in before, we really begin to freeze up here. I am sad though, it went from summer to winter and maybe 2 days of Fall in the middle of that. I wanted to see more of the changing leave colors.

Last weekend I took a trip down to Utah with some friends and enjoy some crazy adventures with them. From a terrifying Haunted House (that by the way I pay twenty dollars for), to dinner in SLC, to First time Lagoon Trip and even an Adventure on the Sky Coaster. I definitely did alot of screaming and had no voice the next morning. Great times though for sure!

Here comes the Final week of October, hopefully more great adventure this week, and its HALLOWEEN!