The Wait Is Over!!

What wait you may ask? Oh just the almost 2 year wait you have all had to endure anxiously anticipating my next blog post! AND IT'S FINALLY HERE! In 2010, way back in the day when I was living in Texas pursuing my education, I was persuaded into starting a blog, an online journal if you will, and that went... well? Well enough for the solid 20 posts I created. Recently I found myself thinking back on my blogging days and I got the urge to pick it back up! Again, we will see how long this last!

Now, I could spend some time in a lengthy post catching y'all up on my life these past months, which I may do to an extent, but I'd like to start fresh on the most recent events of my life and go forward from there!

Ok, well since last post I have done a few things! I have, most importantly, graduated my dental hygiene program in Texas and have since moved home, written 2 board exams, one in each country because you know, they clean teeth differently in Canada than in the US.. not. Oh well, couple of big tests, lots of studying, one big cross country road trip home from Texas to Canada filled with lots of memories, pictures and sketchy hotels. Moved home, then moved with the fam when they moved to a new house in Beaumont, and most recently moved out to a new place with some roommates! Side note, HATE moving. Packing, unpacking organizing, re organizing. Icky. In the future I may hire professionals for that job. Also I have a pretty nice boyfriend, his name is Tom. He scoped me out about 6 months ago, and has been hanging around ever since. What a creep hey? In that time I've learned that he's super sweet and thoughtful and handsome and wonderful and he currently is working in Calgary for the summer. So that part is sucky. But it's ok because you know what they say- Distance makes the heart grow fonder. Love grow stronger. Time feel longer? Whatever. I just don't know how he will survive without me. I have had a few Dental Hygiene jobs since coming home, the last of which turned out to be a great job that I really enjoy! I feel very lucky indeed to have found such a great job so close to home, full time and with great people. So that's kinda what I do these days, work. Cleaning teeth, saving lives. Living the dream. 

It seems surreal that I was ever living in Texas and that I ever did school there and had a Texas life. Looking back it went by way quick, and from reading my previous posts it may sound like I hated Texas and wanted nothing better than to be home, BUT in real life I miss it everyday so very much and would give anything to go back to visit. The last semester especially flew by probably because we knew that it was all coming to an end. In the midst of all of our schooling and studies we managed to have so much fun and make so many memories and experiences. I will never forget all that Texas taught me and how it helped make me into who I am today, not fully sure what I've been "made" into yet, but I know Texas helped :)

Now that I am a real grown up and have a real grown up job and a grown up life it becomes harder and harder to say "when I grow up I am gunna do this!" or, "when I'm a grown up I will do this" or "by the time I grow up I will have accomplished this, or be here in my life". Which I say a lot. And it's true, in the grand scheme of things I AM still young, but lets face it, this is real life, and I am more of a grown up today than I was yesterday and I am NOT getting any younger! So I have decided to live just like that, being a grown woman but also remember that I am still young and I have lots of growing up to do!!

Well I think that gives a taste in short the past little while of my life, how pathetic I can cram it into 4 paragraphs. I am challenging myself to be better at this, because if you recall, I am not a journal keeper and this is the closest thing to a journal for me! Maybe it will push me in the right direction to start actually keeping a written record of my life for my future generations to read and laugh at how not interesting my life is! Anywayyyyy I have a topic for a post soon to come that I will probably write tomorrow, (teaser- I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and I am sure we can all just picture how well I handled that whole ordeal.) I know in reality that a very few, if any people besides my mom will actually read this blog, but I know one thing for sure- my mom WILL inform me of any and all grammatical errors I may post and I will be an embarrassment to my family name and my grandmother, the other grammar nazi.

Night y'all! Dreaming of solid foods... sighh. 

Overdue Update

OK well! It has indeed been a little too long since my last post, which, I assumed would happen eventually! But!! Still, I vow to try and be more diligent in posting my boring, day to day events on the world wide web. Odd goal I suppose.

Well, today is Thursday January 20, (which is also my big bro's burrrrrday! Shout out to you Braden! ;) ) It's been an extremely lazy day in which I do not feel guilty for! After lounging about, I attended clinic, but had a no-show patient so I enjoyed a waste of 3 hours with many other of my fellow students. Today was the evening of no-show patients, it was weird. I think the most productive thing I did today, other than painting my toe-nails... no, wait. I didn't even do that. I stopped at taking off the old nail polish. Hm. Anywhooo, most productive thing I did was I registered and got all signed up for my American board exam! All ready to roll! Minus the being ready for it part. March 14th is the day. And that is coming up fast! Ugggh I am the WORST study-er, for sure for sure. Which will surely be my down fall. Oh well! Musn't dwell on the negatives, that will get us no where!

Well I have been back in good ole Harlingen for 2 weeks, and I am just getting back into the swing of things. For some reason it feels like I am already behind and continuously trying to catch up, and we're only 2 weeks in. It's silly, because class wise, this is supposed to be the least stressful semester because all time is focused on preparing for boards. Sigh. Oh well. There is now a HUGE light at the end of the tunnel so that makes things a little easier!? More do-able. Great.

I'll just tell y'all a quick overview of my Christmas break! Which was fabulous. Being home is always so lovely. I loved coming home to the snow and chilly, fresh air. There is nothing that could take the place of the picture perfect image of fresh, gigantic snow flakes falling to the ground and landing on heaps of white snow mounds!! So sparkly. So great. So I indeed had a lot of skating time and grandma and grandpas house. Personal fave.

She is a great little skater! I had some pee-your-pants funny moments while skating with little Avery and Teigan! Like, so adorable and cute! 

This is one of my all time favorite picture from the holiday season! I love my grandpa! Always there to lend a helping hand...literally!

So I got to spend a lot of time with my family, but also with my girls! And I will confess, as much as I LOVE my lovely ladies..this is my favorite thing... "Hey Kaitlin! Wanna hang out tonight!?" "Ya sure!!" "Ok great! We're totally gunna have a girls night!!" ...Ya... well, I am SICK of girls nights! That's all I ever have is "girls night", and let me tell ya... THEY GET OLD. Haha jokes jokes. Sorta. I do love girls nights, but I also miss hanging out with a mixed crowd. I miss the male influence in our social lives. Haha So that makes it nice to come home and have somewhat of a social life! Christmas was lovely, of course, and there was lots of good times and good food! New years was also a blast!! I went down to Waterton for a New Years bash and it was a blast! Good times. Actually! Yes it was good times, but it was also SO COLD!! Like, I've lived in Edmonton my whole 19 years of life, and I've experienced some cold days, but this was literally unbearable! The cold whipping wind felt like it was slapping me in the face! Took your breath away.. But we played out in the snow for a large portion of the day, and then got to warmed up by having a dance party at the Town Hall. Haha yay! So neat.

The very last week of being home I came down with something, a flu of sorts, and it wiped me out for the remainder of my time home. I was a fever-ey, shaking, chills, death-chest congestion/cough-runny nose-nauseous mess. Ya. I was a real treat. Not my best of days :) I also had very leaky eyes. I won't say I cried for 4 days straight, but everything made my eyes leak. It was super annoying. So, that was how I wrapped up my last moments in Canada, laying in my bed, sipping Neo-Citran (which is secretly only useful to knock a person out so they can sleep) and blowing through an entire box of Kleenex. No pun intended. I seriously felt so awful for the poor people who had to sit beside me on my flights back to HRL... I was not the ideal neighbor. Hahah picture this! A leaky, sneezy, blowing nose, hacking out my lungs mess, and to top it off! My entire flight plan was delayed because, get this..THEY COULDN'T SHUT THE PLANE DOOR! Never heard of such a reason to delay a flight. We sat in the tiny hop-a-long plane for an hour as the door- knob stewardess took her flight attendant kettle and poored boiling water on the built up ice on the door to try and melt it off. Worst. Idea. Ever. Then we had some maintenance guys attempting to remove the ice with huge blow dryers and such. It was absolutely ridiculous. So this minor set back made me later for my next connecting flight out of Calgary, but thanks to the weather there my next flight was delayed an hour too!! So I did make it onto my connection and eventually made it here! It didn't help that the turbulence was awful and I almost had to use the little puke bags they provide for you! Gosh I hate flying.Yuck. I seriously have so much to say about airports and air planes that that will have to be saved for another entry.

Alright, I should go to bed and rest up for my big day tomorrow! Only one class! Speech.. What a waste of a class. Tomorrow I also have my Miss TSTC photo shoot for like, the farewell pictures they hang on the wall of fame. I bought a new dress. What an idiot. To spend money on something like this... but. Oh well. Stuff like this only happens once in a blue moon. Might as well make the best of it!

Christmas in Harlingen!!

Yayyyy!!! 2 DAYS UNTIL I GO HOME TO CANADA FOR A WHOLE MONTH!! I cannot wait I cannot wait I CANNOT WAIT!! These past few weeks have been jam packed with lots of stuff, and this semester is finally coming to a close! I write a final today, in like, half and hour, and then my last final is on Wednesday morning, and then my flight home is immediately after that:) I waste NO time! This past weekend we really got into the Christmas spirit and and LOVE it!! Ok, so as most of you know, I am Miss TSTC, and lets just say this comes with its ups and downs... but this weekend was probably the best part so far!! I got the opportunity to be the queen in the Harlingen Christmas day Parade!! I was THEE queen!! I got to ride through the parade on top of a 2010 convertible corvette (which most people would go woooooooo sweeeeeeeeet, but I am clueless when it comes to anything car related. All I know was that it was pretty and it color coordinated with my outfit!)

So this happened Friday night! Maryn to the liberty of taking pictures throughout the whole process, starting with literally the second I stepped out of the shower.

 Just doing the hair and the make-up!

It is a pretty big process..

Finding an outfit..

Ready to roll people! Got my sash 'n all!

It's too heavy... :(

This is Mr. TSTC and I

Kind of blurry and dark.. but you get the idea.

So ya! This was a super cool night and experience and I was a lot of fun!! K, funniest story! Well, no, k, wait, First! It was so cool to ride through the packed streets of downtown Harlingen and have all the people see you, and immediately start copying your "queen wave" hahah sooo cute!! All the little girls wide eyed and yelling at you, "Merry Christmas Queen!!" haha "I love your crown queen!" Hahaha gosh, so adorable. My cheeks were so dead by the end of the parade I could not smile anymore! It seemed like a very long night, being at the parade by 5, and it didn't start until 7. We were seated on the car with our crowns on ready to roll at like, 6:45pm and we literally did not move an inch until 8:15, and the parade didn't end till like, 9:30, so needless to say, I had a very huge head ache, and a literal dent in my head from the crown! But, it was all worth it :)

Ok, so the funniest part of the whole night happened near the beginning of the parade! We had just barely begun driving down Jackson Street, and there was this one group of guys clustered on one corner of the block, and I didn't really take too much notice to them. I was just doing my thang, waving and smiling at the kids, when I hear one of the guys from the aforementioned group say, "Hey guys... guys! That's Taylor Swift!" I kind if chuckle to myself, thinking, "Ha! What a looser. You think THEE T-Swift would be on a Christmas parade float in Harlingen, Texas?" So I ignore them, and I keep waving and smiling, when I see out of the corner of my eye a mom who was standing near this group of guys look, over at me, then at the guys, then a me again, and then she shouts, "TAYLOR!! That's Taylor Swift?! Taylor, Taylor!! I NEED A PICTURE! Just ONE picture!!" As she's yelling this at me shes chasing my car down the street snapping her camera.So as this is going on, the group of guys are hearing and seeing this, and start yelling "TAYLOR! TAYLOR! It's Taylor Swift!!" So, just for fun, I turn to them, and give my biggest smile and wave to them. They went NUTS! Like, LOST it!! There leaping in the air and shouting to each other and at me, "TAYLOR!! We love you Taylor!! WE LOVEEEE YOOOOUU!!!" And as they are loosing their minds with excitement, that same mom pop's into my rear view site again and is still yelling.."I just need ONE picture Taylor! Just one!" HAHAHA So outrageous!  Good times :)

Alright! So that was Friday night, and then Saturday afternoon was our Christmas Day Party!! We had some people over for making gingerbread houses, which we made into a competition! We had lots of candy and food and music, and it was just a lovely afternoon!

We made a pretty decent mess :)

Our gingerbread village!!

Mine and Maryn's houses! Santa's cottage and his neighbor the Grinch! Note the skating rink in the backyard with baby gummy bear's skating away! F.Y.I we totally won the competition ;)

We may or may not have had more icing on each other than on the houses.. oops!

I love a good gingerbread house making day! And I can't wait to be home to do all the other Christmas festivities!! xxoo

Day 15: My Dream House!!

THE LAST DAYYY!!!!! This is day 15 of the 15 day challenge!! Holy smokers time sure flies when you have fun!! 

Ok, so today is all about my dream house! I have been thinking about it for a while, and I came up with a few necessities, or desires for my DREAM HOME. It hard though, because I love the look and feel of a big, modern, edgy house, but I ALSO love a cute and cozy feel... sooo I don't know those two can really, mesh well together, ya know?? But if it was a perfect world, where I got everything I wanted, my house would consist of a few keys points. Recently, hearing my mom and dad,planning the house that they're building I know what things like, "back splash" and stuff is now. Who would have thought?? Tiny details that matter.. huh. Lets just say I won't be discussing any of those minute details in the post :)

 I want a beautiful stone fireplace in a large sitting room, with cozy sectional sofas and foot rests. 

A GIGANTIC walk in closet would be so lovely!

I would love a wrap around porch with cute chairs and and a bench swing!!

I would also enjoy a large master bedroom with a king size bed!

I know it's not really realistic, or that practical, especially living in the coldest place on the planet, to have a huge wall of windows!! I think it looks so neat, but not gunna lie it would be freaky at night time, and it would be a pain to clean.I would settle for some huge double windows in each bedroom and kitchen :)

One day I will have my dream house, or something along the lines of a dream house, and I simply cannot wait!! xxoo

Day 14: Pictures that I Love

It is the second last day of my 15 days challenge!! And today is pictures that I love, which is hard to pick because, a) I have a lot of favorite pictures, and b) I only have a limited selection of pictures on my computer here to pick from. I guess that makes it easier, but whatever, here are a few of my favorite pictures!

This picture is pretty self explanatory. My baby sis Avery with her baby mushroom cut. Gosh she is adorable! The whole tongue thing is priceless.

I love this picture of me and my cousin Kels. I just love her shes so cute. I just love this picture because it encompasses our relationship! And out matching hats. Skating at Grandmas. LOVE it!

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAH yessss. Another personal fav. Our family reenactment of the nativity at Christmas time. Our costumes, out characters, our donkey... :)

                                                                I love this family picture. Classic!

                                    This is one of my favorite pictures from grad 09!! I love my girls.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand another favorite from grad. This is the aftermath of me stepping on Hilary's foot with my pointy heels, and then she stepped back onto Jessica's dress which ripped...? All of this happeing while balancing on a stone wall! I think that's what happened. Regardless, I just love that I am grinning for some odd reason as the others are assessing the damages. Another classic.

I am re-living some high school days I guess, but I have always loved this picture. Me and my buddy Jason Lang. Yes, Jason, a boy. Matching hair!! I miss that hair of his :)

This is my roommate Becca, who attempted to spell her name in the sand.. but somehow she SPELLED IT WRONG!! Haha "what the I spelled my name wrong!" ahhhh I love you Becca.

This was during our spring break Texas extravaganza! I just love this picture with the beautiful ocean and sky and roommates! xxoo

I love my hair. It does cool stuff. Like this. This is what my hair does when I blow dry it straight. It's rebellious. I just love this picture.

                           I don't know if this is real, but I LOVE the baby puppy in the hot dog bun.

Our very first torrential down pour in Texas, so we dropped everything and ran out into the parking lot to enjoy it!! SOAKING wet, POURING rain, LOOOOOVE it!

 
I love this picture too because it is our family Christmas caroling tradition! This is on Candy Cane Lane, and its snowing and beautiful and I love my family and I love my grandpa!! Just so jolly on this picture!!

Just a few of my most favorite pictures that I love :) xxoo

Day 13: Goals

I think that goals are a realistic thing to set, but for some reason I am not too good at it!! I think some of my goals include, obviously, graduating from the Dental Hygiene program here in Texas. That in itself encompasses a lot of goals too! Like, I set a goal to pass all of my exams. I set a goal to complete all my patient requirements and competencies. I set a goal to complete all my assignments and papers on time and to the best of my ability!
It is my goal to take violin lessons once I graduate and am settled because I have always wanted to play it!!
It is also my goal to take some ballroom dance classes too. I would love to do it like I did before with competing and stuff, but even if I just take recreational lessons for fun I would be so happy!
Ummm man, this is a tough thing.. I don't really know what other goals I can talk about...?
I guess, it is my goal to pay off all my student loans ASAP when I get home.
It's my goal to try and grow my hair out as long as I can :) haha
 ok, well, this is a boring post, so imma wrap it up!
Keep it real y'all! xxoo

Day 12: What I Believe

Today is Friday November 26th!! Already??! Man, time flies! We don't have school today thanks to American Thanksgiving, so we are just enjoying our 4 day weekend! I am thankful for Thanksgiving :) Oh! Maryn made this great thing this week! On Monday, at our Texas parents house, we had FHE and Maryn took us one at a time into the back room and recorded us saying something we were thankful for. Then she made it into a video like the Mormon Message video, and played it at Thanksgiving dinner :) It was spectacular!

Anywhoooo.. today's post is on what I believe in! Well, as previously stated in another post, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints! So I have a strong testimony of the gospel and it encompasses all that I believe in! I not only believe, but I KNOW that if it weren't for the gospel in my life I would be so lost. I know that I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me, and that we are all children of our Father who loves all of us!! I know that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and for everyone, and He knows what I need in my life. I have such a strong testimony of prayer, and that when I pray, there is someone listening, and that He cares, and that He will always answer my prayers in His own time.

I know that God has a living prophet on ther earth today, President Thomas S. Monson, and that he receives revelation for the church from Heavenly Father. I know the Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God and restored the church on the earth as we know it, and that he translated the Book of Mormon. I have a strong testimony of The Book of Mormon and I KNOW that it is true and that it is the keystone of our religion. I believe that is is so important for me to read it everyday and to study and ponder its words.

I am so grateful for temples!! I LOVE the temple and I know it is so important to live everyday so I am worthy to enter it always! I love that I know that my family can be together FOREVER and ever because of it :) :) :) I know that my Savior died for all of us so that we can be here today, and so that we can repent and try our best to make good decisions. I love my Savior and am so grateful for Him and His sacrifice for all of us.

"I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, I'll honor his name! I'll do what is right! I'll follow his light! His truth I will proclaim!!"