<
>
<

30.3.11

so you make no mistake

last semester was a interesting one for me. it was my first full semester at a university (instead of community college, which- let's be real- was easier than high school) i took 18.5 credits, worked part time and rehearsed nearly every night. and in the middle of all of the craziness, i miscarried. i missed two weeks of school (luckily all my professors were nice about it) and the semester ended with grades not as high as i would have liked (that's when my motto "c's get degree's" really came into play) when we were home for the holidays i expressed my frustrations to my parents, also known as cried and complained about school, finances, how i saw no light at the end of the tunnel and that i was ready to throw in the towel. well, this semester i'm off-track so i've had some time to clear my head and enough time to miss listening to a good lecture. then earlier this week i found out 2 semesters worth of classes didn't transfer. 2 semesters! that's a year of school, people. after hours on the phone and meeting with an advisor i think i've got it figured out. but yesterday as i walked to campus to register for next semester i started to feel the discouragement creeping in, but as i kept walking i felt so grateful for where i'm at. two words that largely describe my life are wife and student. and i'm happy about that. i love being on campus, i love being a wife and i especially love when the two worlds collide and i run into landon on campus. i texted my padre and said "well, i'm taking a full load of classes next semester if you we're worried about it after our talk over break. things always seem to work out" and he said "funny how that works, huh?" things do workout. always. and at the end of the day, lando and i will walk together at graduation- hooray!

it's so crazy to me to think that someday this will be over, someday thoughts of school won't consume my brain, someday is actually on the horizon. what will i ever do with myself?

my friend, sarah, sent me the following photo. i've seen these before and always wanted a picture of one, thanks sar! i think "k"-line should be my new gangsta name. when i was dating landon, my sister was dating her future husband. he would send her the funniest ghetto-fabulous texts in which he called her j-money. he could have gained my approval solely on those texts. her contact in my phone has been j-money ever since. "k"-line-and-j-money-4-life.

28.3.11

last night landon set the alarm...

...and i asked "what sound did you put it on? i could barely hear it yesterday." and he said "ninjas walking."

i love byu-i, there is constantly a million photo projects going on. last year i did the kaleidoscope project. i was green and magenta. and yesterday we did the lovers project with tara and she sent a few over last night, i love them. thank yooooooou tara!

landon was really, really excited to take photos, i promise. and i don't have sideburns, it just kind of looks like i do.

27.3.11

hope, again

my sunday best: dress two was purchased at the mesa d.i. for $4.00 i ripped out the shoulder pads, added a different belt and voilĂ ! little red dress.

"wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."
-ether 12:4

i read this last week and loved it. the scriptures, lessons and talks about this seem to be jumping out at me lately. i guess that's what i need the most right now (well, actually what we all need, all the time) faith and hope. it's easy to get discouraged and scared about the world and about our lives, i have to remember that 'fear and faith cannot reside in the same heart.' thanks, president monson.

i hope for a better world.

26.3.11

a mamacita & a boris

my cute mom and funny sister (or funny mom and cute sister, it's whatever) were in town last week for spring break. spring break in rexburg is craaaaaa-zzzzzzay! although there were no wet t-shirt contests or girls gone wild producers to be found we managed to have a good time.
day one: was spent touring campus and looking for apartments for boris, because she's coming in the fall, remember? t-minus 5 months! it also included sammy's pie-shakes and the byu bookstore.
day two: idaho falls mall and the rexburg temple. and even though if has thee worst mall known to man, we managed to spend a while there, we denhalter girls now how to shop.
day three: we stayed at home in our pajamas work-out clothes and my mom taught me how to cook. kind of, i mostly watched and cleaned the kitchen. my mom is an amazing cook and everything is from scratch. we made 6 weeks worth of all-bran muffins, homemade ginger snaps, and enough mushroom and wild rice soup to feed lando and i until we're sixty (suddenly i don't feel so bad about our lack of year supply.)
day four: we took the pass to jackson hole because we're tourist-y. in jackson laura's hands turned blue, we almost picked up a hitch-hiker, mom made awesome faces while jumping and i almost got talked into fostering a dog by some hippie. on the way home we stopped at every little store in every little town.
day five: they left and i'm still a little mad about it.
all-the-days: we laughed until we cried and ate until we we're sick, two thing i really like to do. i love these two girls so much. everything about this trip was perfect. and, they wanted to see at least one moose while in idaho and they saw two!

see what i mean? rexburg spring break 2011 = crazy.

and now a slight photo overload:

^we love our mom. i'm considering getting the tattoo that says so.

18.3.11

mormon celebrities

sheri dew and wendy nelson (elder nelson's wife) checked into the hotel today. i was totally star struck. she started to tell me her last name for her reservation and i nervously said something like "i know who you are..." and she said "well, don't hold it against me!" i sort of wanted to hug her. i mean, have you read "go forward with faith" ? i didn't hug her, but i gave her some water bottles for free. she kept saying my first name and asked me all sorts of questions about my life, she's cute and sassy. wendy (yes, we're on a first name basis) was in the car calling her husband- as in the apostle- her husband... no big deal.

we're practically bff's now, me and sheri.

17.3.11

hi, i'm kate and i ran a marathon

i kind of want to introduce myself that way. i'm so lame.

i read this today. man oh man. i want to do that again. i can do that again! my body craves running, methodical breathing, tight muscles, the constant beat, beat, beat of my shoes on the pavement. i know that, yet i've only been running once or twice a week for the past few months. it's time to train again.

tomorrow i'm getting up early and going for a long, slow run.

i am.

i'm probably going to wear my medal, too.

16.3.11

round one

when i was 8 i loved me some george straight. me and my best friends, traci and rachel, made up many a dance to "carrying your love with me" and "one night at a time." (traci, i'm pretty sure cameron was always there getting his groove thang on too. "love dorothy, love toto, must go home.") when i was 10 i got a karaoke machine for christmas. i vividly remember singing my heart out to "to make you feel my love" and "the dance" by garth brooks. i'm pretty sure traci and rachel were still in the picture.

well sometime between then and now i've realize how awful country music is. well 85% of it anyway, i'll leave garth, george and johnny in the 15% that isn't so awful. it's not the sound that's awful, it's the lyrics. just because it's rhymes doesn't mean you should say it or that it makes sense, shania. country music radio is playing 24/7 at work and i find myself absentmindedly singing along "rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky" or "after three rounds with jose cuervo..."

heaven help me.

before any country music lovers get offended (i.e. my brothers) read this, we're all entitled to our lame awesome music. based on our music selections, you'd probably say "different stroke for different folks" and i'd probably say "is ight, shawty."

15.3.11

the sunshine stand


today i'm wishing i could be here, the sunshine stand. you should go and drink a cup for me.

but instead i'm thinking how after months and months of snow todays rain was welcomed with open arms.

happy tuesday.

14.3.11

but here we sit debating hope



my sunday best: dress one it was $2.50 at the idaho falls ranch thrift store. over the years i've found a handful of really pretty dresses. this is an effort to document them.

sundays will always be my favorite day of the week. i sat in the conference center as joseph b. worthlin said this

"each of us will have our own fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. we all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. we will all have our fridays, but i testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—sunday will come. in the darkness of our sorrow, sunday will come. no matter our desperation, no matter our grief, in this life or the next, sunday will come."

i listened and i wept as if those words were spoken only for me.

12.3.11

sisters and friends and babies

one of my very best friends had a baby girl yesterday and named her brazia (bray-sha)

and my sister had a baby girl today and named her rory.

what i'm saying is i need a private jet to arizona, like yesterday and i love you cordae and lindsay!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnd........

another one of my very best friends just told me she is pregnant.

and another one of my sisters just told me she is pregnant, too.

what i'm saying is i need a private jet to arizona in 9 months or so and i love you friend and sister! you know who you are, the ones puking and stuff (i'm not gonna say names because i've ruined surprises before. but i only have so many sisters - and so many friends.)

i love babies.
and have mercy! i need to see these girls! post haste.

es okay boppy...

...we've been saying that a lot in the past two weeks thanks to fernando sucre and my number one frienemy : prison break.

what do we do when the weather is above freezing in the burg? we wear short sleeve shirts and go exploring. lan was on the hunt for a good climbing place and i was just along for the ride. other than finding one good rock (yeeeeeah!) seeing literally hundreds of mule deer and snapping a few good photos we didn't see much and decided a half melted winter isn't very pretty.  but spring is coming, which is practically summer, bring on the hippie headbands and campfires.

^our trusty explorer. lovingly called "the exploder" we like our car... and the fact that we can both sleep in the back of it. 

9.3.11

i've got ideas, i've got lots of them.

via. i've always really liked this quote and i really like this design.

8.3.11

day 9

on day 5 i dropped a weight on my foot and it hurt, reeeeeeeeel bad. on day 3 i was all "this is totally working!" but then i realized it was 2:00 p.m. and i just hadn't eaten anything yet (i'm really good at doing that.) on day 7 i'm pretty sure i pulled a muscle in my thigh. on day 1 i decided jillian needs a new voice. on day 9 i might have had diet coke and a twix for lunch. i was running late, okay? lets not talk about this, okay blends? i've always wanted to say that. and i promise that was the last time i ever will (say blends or make promises to the www.)

7.3.11

in-laws

lando's parents came to visit! tim had some business in salt lake so lori joined in and they headed up our direction. our first visitors! we were so excited! we showed them a good time. frontier pies, cocoa bean and a rexburg tour that lasted all of 10 minutes. (rexburgs the place to be, i tell ya.) tim and landon talked about engineering all through dinner while lori and i looked at eachother every now and then to shrug our shoulders and make the "that went right over my head" hand signal.
^one civil engineer one someday mechanical engineer... two very smart guys. don't they look so much alike? tim is the best father-in-law, he is always so interested in our lives and has the best advice. i'm convinced tim is the most in-tune person i've met. any time we've needed something tim has offered it before we've asked, called at the right time, or sent a really nice text on a day i really needed it. i have been so homesick the past few weeks and of course, tim calls to tell me they are coming! these boys have so many similar interests they could talk for hours.
^my mother-in-law. you know the horrible mother-in-law stereo type? this DOES NOT apply to lori. i couldn't have asked for a better one, honestly. she is the sweetest, funniest, most loving, light-hearted, laid back person (i could go on....) every time i'm with her we are usually just giggling about something. from the day i met her she's welcomed me with open arms. landon says his biggest memory of his mom growing up was her down on the ground playing with him, outside playing games, building a sand castle or coloring with him, i love that.  um, she let me marry her only son and she bakes the best cakes, i think she's alright.

thank you, thank you tim & lori! it was so good to see you. we love you!

4.3.11

if you could see your future inside a glass of water



a photo from a few years ago, but still a favorite.
 
lan has been super stressed all week about a test he takes today, super stressed. you don't really know landon unless you've seen him stressed. i'm the worst wife in the world but sometimes it takes everything i have to not laugh at him when he's like this, yeah i know, laughing doesn't help the situation, but i've never seen anyone get so tense. i've heard stories about tim (his dad) in college that sound eerily similar, one time he rubbed his eyebrows completely off while studying for finals. well last year when lan took his first really hard engineering class he was studying for finals and i came home to him literally pulling his hair out and talking to himself. i tried everything to help out, i brought him a snack, i brought him water, i massaged his shoulders, i offered to help with his homework (haha) then finally i called tim and asked what the best thing for me to do is. he said "just leave." so i did and now when lando starts getting a little feisty with his hair and starts mumbling under his breath i quietly slip out the door a suppress my laughter... at least until i get to my car. ever since tim let me in on that little "just leave" secret we've had one very happy engineering student and one very happy wife. i shouldn't be laughing at my husbands expense but maybe this will make it better: landon is so smart. he is in the mechanical engineering program here and let me tell you, this ain't no art degree. that boy gets up before class and studies, goes to the library between classes and studies, and studies right when he gets home until right before he goes to bed, the poor guys usually eats his dinner at his desk. i'm gonna get all personal for a second. i feel so crazy lucky to be married to landon. the other day i was thinking about when he proposed (almost 4 years ago!) and how little i knew about him then. and i know 4 years from now i'll say the same thing about today. but i'm constantly surprised by him, he is such a good and kind person, such a hard worker, makes me laugh every day and just straight up good lookin'.

1.3.11

we're giving up soda and sweets for 28 days

gross i know and i'm hoping if i post it on the world wide web i'll hold myself accountable. after 28 days? still no soda but we could never give up candy.

i'm doing the 30-day shred and he's working out everyday. why? because lando is climbing the tetons this summer and i would like my body to look like jillian michael's.

why 28 days do you ask? because in 28 days my mom and seester are coming to town! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and heaven knows we'll eat way, way too much food.