Brrrrrrrrr...

I think Colorado must want me to go home since it has been warm in Alaska than it has been here for the last couple of days. Or Colorado is preparing me for home. Either way I have been enjoying snow and very cold weather for the last couple of days! It started snowing on Saturday night and kept right on snowing until Tuesday, very unusual for Colorado. Then, instead of the typical warm right up to 60 degrees and melt all the snow away, the temperature dropped to around zero! This morning when I went out to warm my car it was a balmy 11 below zero!!! Unfortunately classes kept on trucking so I spent the snowy days inside studying like mad for my two practicals I had this week. Thankfully they are done with and now I can catch up on some research.
But of course I distract myself from stuff that needs to get done and spend my time indulging my baking desire! Pictures of what I have been busily doing are below.
Other than baking and studying I haven't been doing a lot. I bought new shoes which are the coolest but unfortunately it snowed this week so they make my feet cold and I have favored my slipper crocs instead! I also have failed miserably at making a fire twice now. I do believe the problem lies in the logs because this time round I even used an accelerant and still no lasting fire. The logs smolder and create coals but then the flames die and Kara is still cold. I even had Christmas music, but no luck.
The best news for this week is that my cousin had her baby, Kennedy LaVon! My dad and I can't agree on whether or not she is my second cousin (I think so) or my first cousin once removed... Either way she is B-E-A-utiful! Born on 12/8/2009 at 11:17 am. She weighed 8 lb 14 oz and was 21 inches long. Jess and Kennedy are doing wonderfully and are heading home tonight. This is Jess and Derek's first baby and it was very exciting for the whole family. Welcome baby Kennedy!
Well that is about all I have been up to, freezing and stuffing my brain full of...STUFFING! I realized just now I forgot my customary note to self on the last post, whoops! Apparently I need a note to self: don't forget your note, note!! Enjoy the pictures and I will enjoy my cookies!

Note to self: Family is a wonderful thing, the bigger the better!

My pretty hearth all decorated for Christmas, minus my little pumpkins!
The lights, it is kinda hard to see but they are pretty!

Whoops, one of my pans cooked a little TOO hot!
But most of the cookies made it!

Time to catch up...

Well, it certainly has been quite a while. While I have been extremely busy, nothing really has changed for me since I last updated. But I felt like writing tonight, instead of doing homework. Actually, I felt like putting up pretty pictures that I took this weekend.

I stayed here in Colorado for Thanksgiving and it wasn't bad. I actually spent the first weekend of our break in Idaho with my lovely and very pregnant cousin. We hit up the craft fair which make it feel much more like Thanksgiving. We also went to a couple of basketball games. Due to having excellent connections, we also were given the privileged of VIP passes. The VIP passes let us into the catered, buffet style dinner they were having at the games! Such luck we had!

Break was fairly relaxing other than that and I got some much needed rest. Unfortunately it feels like it wasn't long enough and I still didn't get my work done. Oh well, there is always tomorrow right?! I got to indulge my baking desires this weekend and made quite an array of goodies. Three pumpkin pies (all homemade), peanut butter blossoms, and chocolate chip cookies were the products of my baking craze. I also cooked up a yummy turkey breast and some mashed potatoes on Friday. I wanted leftovers and cold turkey to snack on!

Well, that is about all I have been doing. Lots of cooking, cleaning, and learning. Probably not as
much learning as needed but I've been trying.
Yummy peanut blossoms! These are my favorite Christmas cookie and I probably will be making many, many more!

The pretty flowers my mom and dad sent me for Thanksgiving! They came with lots of good fruit!

So I threw some things in a pan and I got a really good pork chop out of the deal. I just sauteed up some apples and onions with my pork chops, very very yummy!

My favorite little cousins

Here is a shot of the three cutest blondies I know. They are my second cousins and are turning three really soon. This picture is from when the whole family was down for the wedding in August.

Note to self: Family is amazing.

Learning things the hard way is... hard

An interesting fact of the world is that some people learn from examples and other people have to learn the hard way by making the examples that the "smarter" people learn from. Now, I have no idea why this is the way of the world but it is. Why you might ask, am I wasting my breath (or the minimal amount of energy it takes to type) on this subject. Well today I read a friend's blog and it broke my heart. You see she isn't one of those people that learns ever lesson the hard way, but unfortunately one of those people are in her life. Sometimes it is no big deal to know those people, and truthfully I think that everyone is "one of those people" at least once in their life. I think that what counts is how often you ignore good advice and do the dumb thing, only to regret it later. Anyways, back to the breaking of my heart. I am so saddened that she has to be involved with someone who is only going to turn around and wish he could change his actions. It drags her down and brings someone else into the middle who doesn't deserve that at all. The actions of this "dumb person" will be his regret to carry one day, when he finally wakes up and realizes that he missed so many important things in his life and there is no way to get them back. I could strangle him right now, but I think that might be a little forward of me since I have only met him once. I wish I could show him a slide show of everyone I know who has been affected by the same circumstances and tell him to wake up, stop being immature, and start living the life he made. GRRR! He is so dumb, so selfish, and so going to regret this. Boo on him, that is all I have left to say.

I know that this has been a little ambiguous, but it isn't my story to tell so I leave anyone who doesn't know the details slightly out of the loop but so be it. The basic gist of my rant is such, learning life lessons the hard way is hard, so if you can at all avoid it do so. I know that this is how some people grow, but come on.

On a happier note, but still the same subject, I am so proud of my friend. She has so much strength and will go so far. I have worried about her and her situation a lot, hoping that everything was going to work out but after reading her blog today I know that my worries were silly. She has overcome so many obstacles already and doing the best thing for herself and everyone involved. I love her dearly and am so glad that I know her. :)

Today I was also introduced to a very humorous website so I figured I'd put it up here. Unfortunately the person who showed it to me is probably the only one who reads this... Anyways, go check out Surviving the World and laugh because I sure did!

Well that is it for today, I vented my frustration, expressed my support for a dear friend, and shared a little laughter. More to come later.

Note to self: Learning life lessons through osmosis is much easier.

I write tragedy and try to find the comedy...

It is about time I write again and finally I have some inspiration, if you can call it that. Like I don't have enough on my plate right now, life threw me another curve ball. I guess I just needed to be reminded that it can ALWAYS get worse, so you better start looking on the bright side of things. Before I rant further, I better lay out the story of the day first. Hang on for the ride folks, it gets twisty and curvy and I end up with the short end of the stick.

SO, picture this. Kara is spending a few hours in her condo before she has to get back to campus for meetings and study session. She needed to wrap up a package and mail it off soon so she starts getting it ready. However, she realizes that she is out of packing tape so she decides to pack up her materials, go get the tape from the store, and then head to the post office where she can finish up. Next scene. Kara driving down the semi busy road, softly listening to music and being happy because it is a pretty day. Flash to image of green light turning yellow. Kara decides that she can either slam on her brakes or keep going, so she keeps going. Then Kara is almost entering the intersection when a truck turning left DIVES across in front of her, phew they made it. BUT WAIT! Little silver Oldsmobile who also wants to turn left doesn't make it and there is Kara, slamming on her brakes with all her might but sadly beautiful Santa Fe collides with dumb silver car. BOO, very bad ending I know. So now poor little Santa Fe has a few scratches but thankfully she can be thrifty in a fight. Oldsmobile is very sad and unhappy and had to get towed away. But that is what you get for trying to turn on a yellow light. There are traffic laws for a reason. Granted, if I had selected to stop I wouldn't be writing this at all BUT I still was in the right. The driver of the other car was VERY nice, which makes it a lot more sad. But the cops came, got our statements, and gave her a citation. *Kara does happy dance because her insurance doesn't go up AND she gets her car fixed by the other insurance* All in all it was a day I could have lived without but I gained some experience and probably will be the safest driver on the roads for the next few months.

So back to the "moral" of the story. I have been fighting a lot lately with all the "curve balls" I have been thrown and frankly I was getting really sick of it all. But thanks to this little mishap today, I have turned a new leaf (for now) and am looking on the bright side of things. I am lucky that the accident was so minimal (for my car) and I am thankful that I can even sit here and write this. I have been looking at my glass as a little less than half empty lately but it is time to remember half full is always the better outlook and there is always a bright side to everything. Take my car accident for example. While we were sitting in the turn lane (where the cop moved us), with everyone rubbernecking at us, a trucker drove by. Now maybe he was having a bad day or something but whatever it may be, as he passed us he laughed. Now this wasn't just a small chuckle, because I heard it as he passed. Frankly it was rude, but if I brightened his day a bit then I guess I can deal with the laughing. But honestly, who laughs!?

I digress. So I am glad to be here, glad that things weren't as bad as it first appeared, glad that everyone was so nice, and glad that I handled the whole situation alright. Things could be worse, I could not have a car, or a leg, and that would stink! But if that was the case, then I guess I would need to find the silver lining in that situation as well. Anyways, here are some pictures so everyone (if anyone reads this) can see the pretty car.

Pretty car before damage

Minor dents. Luckily the damage was confined to this area only!

So there you have it. My tragedy that I found the comedy in. Until next time, hopefully it won't have to be another tragedy!

Note to self: Things can always get worse, so focus on the good.

Long time, no write...

I am pathetic I know... With my slow internet at home and everything else this summer being crazy busy I had no time to write. Now that I am back in Fort Collins, I am going to make an effort to keep on top of things. I am still crazy busy (and it is only the first week of class), but I will try my best.
I am now the proud owner of a Hyundai Santa Fe. It is pretty exciting for me, I have wheels now! I got all my stuff comfortably put in my new condo and I think that I will have a good year, at least leaps and bounds above last year.
Anyways, I am going to have to work back into this slowly but I will write more later. Off to homework, what fun!

Note to self: Get it together!

Almost home...

I have one more final tomorrow morning and then I am home free. Home sounds so lovely and perfect and just the opposite of here. Thank goodness. So far finals have been good but I have been so unmotivated to study for any of them, which has been bad! Oh well, I feel okay about most of them.
I have got my room almost all the way packed up, I've come a long way since last Friday where everything was a disaster! I am sleeping in a sleeping bag tonight with one pillow, everything else is packed. I just have a massive amount of cleaning to do tomorrow before Lauren and I head out to the airport. It is going to be so nice. She is kindly letting me stay with her and her dad over night before I fly out bright and early Friday morning.
Well, I don't have much else going on really right now. Finals are almost over, I am almost home, and I am getting happy. On another great note, Rita should be a mom sometime really soon or maybe she already is. I am so excited for her! :) Welcome to the world Ethan!!
Alright, I am done for now...

Note to self: You can do it if you set your mind to it.