Ya'll Ready for This?! (cue music)

Fall semester grades came in. I took 15 credits, worked 15-20 hours a week, and survived the entire third trimester of pregnancy AND managed to get my highest GPA of all time at BYU. 3 A's, 3 A-'s. 3.86.



Yeah.....take THAT semester I was engaged.

High School Romance

M & D came drove down from Oregon last month and brought me a bunch of "private" things I had locked up in a desk that got passed along to a new family. Turns out all my "private" things consist of a) Ex-boyfriend stuff, b) old prescriptions, c) Cd's that I bought and didn't want to share?, and d) Journals.

I love my journals.

I have ~10 entries from age 11 that are ridiculous. Eventually I'll get around to posting a couple of them because they are truly hilarious and I'm sure everyone can relate to having her mother "steal" her collection of beanie babies. Right?

Other news is I have approximately 1 journal entry for every 2 days junior-senior year of high school. That means every person I ever even TALKED to in these 2 years has their own biography in my journal. I also have every painful detail of my adolescent years, from best friends to ex-friends to boyfriends and crushes and teachers I hate and everything in-between. It is painfully embarrassing and seriously one of the most addicting books I've ever read. Josh and I have been reading through all my teenage angst and laughing at my ridiculous Catalogue of Friends every month (like Homer's catalogue of ships or women) and that at least once a week I end with "it's 8:45! I gotta go to bed!" or "I should probably kill myself. Night." Remember that drama?

It's intense. So...I think I might try blogging some of the less embarrassing entries, if for nothing other than reminding you that there is NOTHING sane about high school.

ps. For all ya'll wondering, I wasn't ever suicidal, but for some inexplicable reason I thought it was a good way to sum up my feelings.

OH! OH! AND I have a journal entry that talks about this "new thing called Myspace".

Surprise!

Big news! It's posted on the private blog. Click the link to get there!

http://sousandhischef.blogspot.com/2010/06/early-christmas.html

Day 11 - Photo taken of me recently

This is last week at the Miniature Tigers concert at the Velour in Provo. How often does your favorite band come into town and play at the tiniest local venue? Not very often, let me tell you. But this concert was a dream come true and I even got my own picture with the lead singer! Long Live the Miniature Tigers. I'm buying your album come July.

Music video version:

Concert version:

Playing Catchup, days 2-6

I am full of unfulfilled promises. For that I am sorry. But here in quick succession are days 2-6 of my month-of-blogging-getting-to-know-me-stuff.
2. Favorite Movie - Movie I've watched the most times, Aladdin. But a non-cartoon favorite? Taken or Mean Girls
3. Favorite TV program - Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy
4. Favorite book - The English Patient/Harry Potters 5 & 7
5. Favorite quote - I'm going to pick 3 because they're all in different categories. And I haven't picked just one answer for any of these favorites, so why start now?

a) "Small gestures were enough for him. One bullet ended the war."

- The English Patient pg 242
So I pick this one because it comes from the most beautiful book I've ever read. The English Patient is written in prose so the whole book moves like a long poem. It's disjointed and artistic and I have to admit, I wouldn't have made it through the book if it weren't required reading in my senior English class. Bless Mrs. Sherman for teaching me to love it. There are so many quotes that I love, and so many more that the romantic senior girl in me loved, but this I think is the most artistic quote that sits artistically in the middle of a paragraph. This quote is therefore dubbed my "artistic" quote.

b) "Watching the news! Again?"
"Well it changes every day, you see."

-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix pg 6
Obviously I love Harry Potter, and obviously I'm going to pick a quote from my other favorite book in the world. I just love this exchange that takes place at the beginning of book 5. I think it just shows how good a writer JK Rowling is. This quote just makes me happy. Consider it my "Happy" quote.

c) "Real adults don't have summer. Start acting like an adult."

- My dad
Sassy 17 year old Kendall remembered and wrote down this quote because it was so ridiculous at the time. However, now that it's stayed on my Facebook page for the last 4 years it has become a part of me and my relationship with my dad. He's always pushed me to work hard, and I never realized what a blessing it is to know how to work hard until this year. (don't mind my bragging moment) Even though I don't exactly work hard at school, I feel my work life has been characterized by hard work, and by trying to exceed expectations. It's been relatively easy for me to get jobs and I thank my Dad for teaching me how to work. This is my "Life Lesson" quote.

6. Whatever tickles my fancy
This one's a little difficult. I haven't done the tickling fancy until recently. I've been considering writing blogs about switching from name brand to store brand products (snore bore, I know) for anyone who's interested. I'll just let you know about two of my successful switches.

A) I've been a faithful user of Vaseline Cocoa Butter Deep Conditioning lotion for around 4 years. I love it. However, the price is getting a little high for me, so I decided to switch to the Target "Up & Up" brand. I think it's great with just one exception -- it smells stronger. I don't necessarily like it, but I think the $2 price different makes up for a somewhat stronger/faker smell. Boring post #1

VS.

B) I love the blue Moisturizer Chapstick. It's sorta minty and not at all bleck like the regular Chapstick (sorry Dad and Mal). I switched to the Target Up & Up Moisturizing Chapstick and I love it. It's exactly the same and more than a dollar cheaper. I think a 3 pack is $2 or so at my SuperTarget. Good change.

VS

That's all for playing catch up! I've officially missed Pilates so I'll be on to my next post in a few minutes. Cheers.

Getting to know you

Getting to know all about youuuu (singing that song, can you name the movie?)

Today is day one of Nat's monthlong challenge/get to know your neighbor month. Day 1. Favorite song.

This is a remarkably difficult challenge considering my favorite song changes weekly/monthly/weekly. I used to be able to depend on my ipod for an accurate play count to see what my favorite song is by way of listening alone. Back when Ipod#1 died, I think my top three songs were Samson-Regina Spektor, Mushaboom-Feist, and Starting Now-Ingrid Michaelson with over 95 plays each. Now that I have Ipod#2 with twice as much memory and an awesome play button on my headphones. Unfortunately, that headphone play button gets pressed a lot in my purse and my top plays are now around 1,800 despite resetting them weekly. OH well. Now, on with it.

Mountain and the Sea - Ingrid Michaelson. It's a beautiful song. It's the song I listened to when I didn't want to run any more to finish the last lap on the Rex Lee Run. It is seriously the perfect pace. And it's such a cute and happy and romantic and uplifting song. I love it. Amen and that's all.



Until tomorrow!
-KC

April Fools!

I'm not going to try to start blogging every day tomorrow. Nat didn't have a genius plan that goes something like this:

and I'm not going to try and do this for the next month. And I am so not excited thinking about doing this again, not hopefully I will actually follow through. And I'm awesome at using the English language.

Cheers.

I'm admitting something really embarassing right now.

Does anybody know where my copy of Breaking Dawn is? I remember lending it out, but I don't remember where it ended up.

Cheers to everyone. General Conference was great, Josh and I spent time with my Gparents Wood, and we also got to watch a session with Jacob, Abbey, and the boys. Hopefully Josh and I will have a little somebody to watch conference with next time.

Hey guess what?

I'm married!!!

And Joshua and I are officially going to Mexico for Christmas! We can't wait to be with all the Arizona (and Utah and Oregon) family for Christmas!

These days are some pivotal ones

Some boring wedding information:

6 days until the wedding!! One week from this exact moment I'll be sleeping somewhere on the Oregon Coast with my husband.

Joshua and I are registered at:
1. Bed, Bath, and Beyondd
2. Williams' Sonoma
3. Target

We have the apartment we're going to live in! It's the cutest little place you've ever seen. You're all invited over for some coffee and bars once we're back.

Two days!

TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

So usually summer is my busiest time of blogging year. And by usually, I mean three to four years ago when I worked at the law firm for two summers in a row. And pretty much surfed the internet for 4 of my 7.5 hours a day. Now I sit at my sweet job at (unnamed security company) without the internet and work as fast as possible for 8 hours a day. I feel my eyesight getting worse each day.

I also never had the opportunity to post/brag about my engagement pictures. Alaina Despain took them and did an amazing job! They were posted on her blog here and here. Joshua and I love them. I can't wait to be married and have married pictures (thank you, Adrie). There are a mere 16 days left! We have an apartment to move in to and a plan to get up to Oregon. Things are going great!

In worldly news: I'm really excited for New Moon. And I wish the next Harry Potter came out at Christmas.

Looove,
Kendall lee

Livin' la vida CRAZY

Okay everyone. I'll explain.

My computer has spyware. I have my suspicions, namely A) a jealous roommate who wanted to spend more time with me and *accidentally* downloaded spyware to make my computer run at the speed of turtle or 2) Actual proof that internet gossip websites are bad for you. And I trusted E!, but no more. The spyware happened, and then The Corporation (my trusty internet source for all of last semester) decided to be password protected so I don't even have the internet if I want to brave the slow computer. And I work full time and hang out with Josh full time so there really just isn't time for me to blog/read blogs. Please forgive me. I will now give you a full update on me and my life.

• I have my wedding dress! It has the new sleeves on it, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I honestly can't WAIT to wear it


• I work full time at APX. I kind of thought this job was going to be horrible, but it's really turned out to be enjoyable. I like the people I work with, and it's kind of nice to have a mindless job. I like that I'm allowed to listen to my ipod all day if I want to.


• I can officially run one mile in 10 minutes, and 3 miles in 40. And the impressive part (to me, anyway) is I couldn't run a whole mile 3 months ago.


• I made a whole chicken for Joshua. It's something I've been promising him for the last 6 months. See picture below.
  


• I dusted off ol' Bliz and started riding her again. Joshua and I now go on loving bike rides once a week. It might be my favorite thing about sunny weather.


• Also, Josh rides the bike around town on the days (most days) I have the car at work. He's such a good bike rider.


• Engagement pictures happen next weekend!


• I passed all my classes last semester! Normally this wouldn't be a big deal because who hasn't passed all their classes in college, but given the fact I completely stopped going to O-chem the last two months of the semester, I consider this a huge accomplishment. And FYI to the children, don't ever be like me.

And that's all for now. My life consists of work, music, and play. I am a little bit addicted to jalapeño cheetos, and a lot in love with Joshua. I am loving summer in Provo!!

Oh snap!

I'm cursing myself right now (with a spell, not the other kind of cursing).

I consciously didn't bring my camera with me and I am really regretting it. I'm at JFK right now waiting to get on my plane to Boston in the next 45 minutes. I've been here for an hour so far, and I'm not so sure I want to leave. The JFK airport is a mall. With airplanes. It's ridiculous.

In my 10 minutes of walking around I walked by a Borders, Lacoste, Brighton, a very large (and not open because it's 5am) sushi restaurant, and various other clothing stores. I have free wifi (get on the train SLC) and I'm charging my ipod so I can watch Chuck without it dying. There are small booths selling airplane pillows, scarves, and even winter coats. This place is crazy, and that's not even counting the giant food court. Want to know my favorite part of the whole experience?
CALORIES. Calories are listed EVERYWHERE. Calories, nutrition, and there is no trans fat because it's ILLEGAL.

This is my dream come true. Too bad everything I want to buy is 5+ dollars, and I am saving my various 5+ dollars for clothing. I would've liked to eat a bag of baked Fuji apple cinnamon chips, or a snack pack of grapes, crackers, cheese, and pineapple. I might have even bought a yogurt parfait or california roll if it weren't so expensive.

Moral of the story? I love New York.

Seriously.

Motherhood has been very good to me.

As you may remember, I'm somewhat of an amazing mom.

I also have never really had what you might call real experience being a mom. This weekend changed everything. I got to babysit Adrie.

Alaina's out of town on a cruise, busy ruining Thanksgiving. Kurt had Adrie most of the time, but I got to play mom to her on Monday and Tuesday night.

Joshua and I took her to the park on Monday night. He is such a good pretend dad. And is that not the cutest picture in the whole world?

My favorite part was on the walk home. Adrie heard a car coming and started freaking out. It was the kind of not real freaking out, like doing what adults do when a car comes to show a child how they're supposed to react. She kept saying, "A car is coming! Oh no! Aaaaah!" and backing up. Two pictures to demonstrate:

By far my favorite part of the weekend was yesterday morning. I was in the bathroom with Adrie and she was saying something I couldn't understand. I kept saying, "What? What?" and she kept repeating until she finally pu her hand out and said, "Trust me?"
I almost died, then asked, "What, Adrie?"
She said, "Dy trust me?" again with the hand out.

So I gave her my hand and she led me out of my (the guest) bathroom, into Alaina's bathroom. I don't even remember why she led me there, I just thought it was so cute that she actually used the line from Aladdin. Thank you, Adrie.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Gabbe and I made yams to celebrate.

ENTER STAGE LEFT: Twenty

I gotta post this stuff before the 1 month rule (that I just made up).

Any event cannot be blogged about one month after it has passed. I have 14 days, I'm just ahead of myself! I'm learning how to get my procrastination under control. If you don't think I have a problem with procrastination, just read any of my school blogs. You will learn.

Now, on with the main event.

My Birthday!!

If you can't tell, my party (and LeeAnne's party, too) was a Roaring Twenties theme. What it lacked in decorations, we made up for in classiness. Alaina was the official photographer, and Gabbe was my stylist. She's a little bit camera shy. LeeAnne was my own personal Sam Ronson (yes I just said that) and DJed for the night. I think everyone had a good time. I know I definitely did. Joshua was the perfect boyfriend and ran errands for me when I was going crazy with the party planning and the episode of the stolen soda. Thank you Joshy.

And a big thanks to all you folks, now have a good one.

Confession number 30

Autumn is my favorite season.

Hands down.

I am so in love with the outside right now. I wish more than anything that I could be celebrating autumn on the East coast. The leaves are gorgeous, the weather is rainy and WONDERFUL, and it's not snowing. The weather is cold enough to wear sweaters (my favorite) but not so cold to curse winter and wearing a parka inside buildings. This is quite possibly the prettiest I have ever seen Utah. I luuuurve autumn.

Not my final slowdance

Hey guys, today I am celebrating Blog #300. I have been avoiding the blog thing because I've been on blog 299 for the past week and a half, and kind of waiting for something good to blog about....I got it.

This is what I looked like approximately two weeks ago.


This is what I look like now:
P.S.
When you watch this movie, leave your computer on mute and FF to second 35. That's me.



So yeah, I have mono. And for some reason, I am the only person on the planet who gets swollen eyes as a symptom. And this is kind of a downer blog, so let's pretend that the next five blogs are counting as my 300th, mkay? Byyyye

Hello, Goodbye

Helloooo Utah, Goodbyyyye Oregon.

I've been in Utah since Tuesday and I have yet to spend a night in Provo. Now that's what I call skill. I stayed two nights at Gma's, two nights at R&C's, and two nights at Alaina's. I have definitely recieved the "all star" treatment at every one of these places (except I had to do dishes today at laina's because I helped ZERO at dinner...that's just called fair) and I'm kind of bummed to have to spend my first night on my own tomorrow. That means I have to make my own breakfast, lunch AND dinner! I forgot what that was like. Can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing. ]

Sooo anyway, if you're in Provo anytime soon, call me and we can play.

Looove and bye.
Kenna Benna


p.s.
There are two pictures of me and that boy I love, taken last April. Enjoy.

The Squigglies

I’m blogging on a word document. This is a new high (or low if you’re not a fan of the blogging) for my blogging career. I forgot how much I love that word corrects the weirdest things, and has a little red scribbley underneath all my ‘blogging’s, which, surprisingly, number four already.

I cleaned my bathroom today. By cleaned I don’t mean the usual (as in twice a summer?) windex the counters and mirrors. I mean, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the corners and crevices and cracks everywhere in my bathroom. I doubt it’s been this clean since before old man Ash died of consumption (alcohol and the dying liver kind of consumption) in the hot tub. I had to clean it so Alaina can’t complain about it to mom and get me in trouble. Please note though, Lainy, that Adrie may die of the chemicals I used to try and make that bathroom clean enough. Please advise her not to lick the oh-so-clean floors. That kind of stuff.

The last three/four days have been very very fun. In the tradition of the Lake Oswego Stake camp girls, I went to the West Linn Old Time Fair with my Lindsey, Whitney, Rachel, Denise, Casi, and various other people. Turns out the Mormons decided to take over the fair. See picture below:

Very, very fun.

Saturday night I watched The Notebook and was inspired by Rachel McAdams sexy 40’s hair and decided I want to be her. The picture below was the end result. Monday I had curled hair pulled back into a cute ‘chiffon’/bun I love from that movie. I don’t think it was quite the same…but I felt great nonetheless. Man the 40’s was a good time for hair and dresses. If you were rich.

I’m wrapping up now, and I must remind you that Twilight and Eclipse are quite possibly the most entertaining, fascinating, and addicting books of all time. Ask Mallory and Whitney. Both of them have read all 3 books in 4 or less days. (Lindsey? You next?)

Good luck with the remainder of the week. I’ll be taking Thursday and Friday off work to go to the beach with Alaina and Adrie. Bye!

K laa

Final Count:

9 red squiggley lines

4 green ones

Go Figure!

So I'm trying out this new thing in my life. It's called, "a healthy body image".

Yeah, I know. Crazy.

But seriously. Working at a womens' health center I am faced with all kinds of different (and crazy) women. I deal with at least three pregnant women on a daily basis, as well as women ages 17 to 90 (seriously, 90), sizes 00 to 40. I love it. One of the magazines we get in the office is "Figure" magazine, a magazine for plus sized women. I always avoided it like the plague (I don't want anyone to think I'm plus sized) but finally caved and read it because it was the only magazine I hadn't read yet.

I loved it.

The pictures in this magazine were gorgeous! The women in the pictures were incredibly beautiful, and I found myself feeling an appropriate amount of jealousy towards these models. I might even go so far as to say I was (am) more jealous of them than their sickly thin counterparts. It was shocking to me to realize that larger women can be just as beautiful as the models every teenage girl wants to be. And I realize that it is ridiculous how long it has taken me to get here. I have always thought that skinnier is better, and I even went through a phase where I didn't eat so I could be skinny. I've struggled for a long time with wanting to lose these last 10 pounds so I can feel good. And I don't need to.

Now though I risk sounding like a bad episode of Tyra, here are my thoughts:
Everyone has their own body size, and everyone has the right to feel comfortable and beautiful in their skin. Being skinny isn't the only kind of beautiful, and maybe it took a plus sized magazine to figure that out, or maybe it's taken maturity, family, and someone who loves me no matter what size, to find that out on my own. I want to exercise to feel better physically, not mentally. I want to eat right because it's good for my body, not so I can wear a cute swimsuit 1 size too small. I want to be 100% comfortable in my own body, and I think I'm a lot closer to getting there than I ever have been.

I hope this has been somewhat of a good message to my lady friends, and to the man reader, a thank you for helping me. I love you all, and I suggest that next time you're out and about, admire the normal sized beauty as well as the thin one. And most of all, love and admire me.

Cheerio!
K laa