Katie's super lame and can't write her own post

Hi everyone! This is Kelsie aka Katie's sister.

As you can see by the title of this post Katie is super lame and can't write her own post, therefore I am here to update you on the going-ons of Katie's life. We have a lot to catch up on, it's been a while. Let us begin.

First off we have a new world traveler!

Katie and Brooke went on a cruise to Mexico. The highlights of the cruise were:

1. THE FOOD lots and lots of yummy food
2. the serenity deck where Katie read 4 books
3. the gorgeous beaches
4. walking on the ocean floor
5. holding a puffer fish while on the ocean floor
6. getting to wear a swimsuit ALL day
7. bargaining with the locals for an awesome deal
8. watching the movie trailers and ONLY movie trailers, in between showings of movies on tv
9. laying in the sun and getting a sweet tan/weird sunburn
10. did I mention the food?

As I list these things off it makes me way jealous that I was not in attendance to this lovely cruise, but it's ok because Katie brought back a cool belt for me. Katie really should do her own post about the food because I have heard a TON about the food and since I wasn't there to experience it I don't feel like I can do it justice.

Next we have a working woman!

Katie started her new job! She can officially say she is an adult because she has a grown-up job. There is some advantages and disadvantages to her new job. The advantages are that she works way closer, she earns more money so she can spoil me, she is putting her college degree to use, and she gets a sweet badge. The disadvantages are that she works ALL THE TIME, so I don't get to see her as much and that she can't take a vacation any time she wants.

And last, but not least, she is getting a new roommate!

You'll never guess who it is..... ME! I'm sitting here watching her pack all of her things and boy, does she have a butt load of stuff! Soon enough she will be all moved out and she will be happily situated in our new apartment where we will make fun, new memories. It does make me a little sad to see her leaving this apartment because it's been my second home for the past 2 years. I even have my own toothbrush here. Luckily we will be living in the same place soon!

Well now you know all about Katie's life from the past couple of months! I'm glad I could catch you up!

Oh and this is what happens when you pack!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. I love the history, the traditions, the celebrations, the excitement, pretty much everything about it. And, to top it off, I spent my 4th of July in Provo, UT. I've said it before, but Provo KNOWS how to do the 4th of July. I've never experienced a 4th of July quite like it anywhere else. There is so much hype and excitement you just can't help but feel proud to be an American.

I mean where else can you do fireworks pretty much the whole week before and after, including, for the first time ever, aerial fireworks! This year was the first year aerial fireworks were legal in Utah and people went kind of crazy with it. I think Utahans probably spent a collective bazillion dollars on fireworks this 4th of July.

And, where else do people camp out for the 4th of July parade? I don't mean set out some chairs the night before and go home and sleep in your comfy bed, in your air conditioned house. I mean CAMP OUT. With tents and air mattresses and barbecues staking your spot roadside. This picture is from last year early on in the day before the parade - trust me it got even more intense. Whole families sleep out on the street in their tents. It pretty much turned into a city wide, night long party right outside my building, because I live on the parade route.

And don't think I didn't participate, even though I think it's delightfully crazy, because I definitely participated. On Saturday night I watched Stadium of Fire from the roof of my building after climbing up a precariously placed stack of tables and a ladder. On Sunday I played games, did sparklers, talked, laughed, went to Denny's at 1 in the morning (you know when you're tired and everything is a bazillion times funnier...yeah), watched The Sandlot in a tent, and finally collapsed into bed at 4am. After a full 3 hours of sleep I was awakened by the cheering for the Freedom Run. Personally, I thought everyone making noise should have their freedom revoked, but that's not what America is about...I guess. Monday was full of parade watching, resting on the couch, fireworks buying, barbecue preparing, eating, games, explosions, and celebrating.

We (meaning, Brooke, Kelsie, Elsa, Brian, Brandon, Matt, and I) had an awesome barbecue at Elsa and Brian's house. Brooke, Kelsie, Elsa and I all decided that it made us feel very grown up organizing our own barbecue. We had good food, played Scattergories and Pit, did fireworks, and made smores.

Overall it was an amazing 4th of July.

This is also from last year. They handed out newspapers with a "name the presidents in order" activity. And, I did it without any help. I just needed to make sure the world saw the documentation of my success.

(I'll add more pictures from this year as soon as I get them from Kelsie and Elsa...probably)

A random jumble

A lot has happened that need documentation. But I suffer from a severe condition in which I getvery far behind in recording important events and prolific thoughts and loose the ability to actually fix this problem. This is because I'm lazy and catching up is hard and can take a long time (which makes me sound very pathetic). I am trying to combat this affliction, but the going is slow.

I already wrote about Karlie's graduating, but here is some pictures from her party.

If you can figure out why I love this picture you get a bazillion bonus points.

Kelsie, Jen, and I finally were accepted to the adult table!

I spent some time with some of my favorite people.

I watched Ryen and Peyten swim and it just made me sooo proud! I taught them both swim lessons for two summers and seeing how much they learned and especially Peyten's love of swimming is amazing. Seeing Peyten swim now makes all those hours I held her in the pool while she was screaming and crying totally worth it.

I (re)learned how to drive a stick shift. I learned a couple years ago, but never really got the hang of it, so my dad had to reteach me. Brendan was appalled at my skills and became furious when I got to drive my dad's new car by myself to pick him up. It's not my fault I was born 5 years earlier and already have my license.

My dad in the physical manifestation of my inheritance.

And me afterwards. I had no idea my hair could get so tangled...

Brooke just read Thomas S. Monson's biography and she told me that in it, it said something about how his mother liked to spy on people. So, if President Monson's mom thinks it's ok to spy then I'm not going to feel guilty about it at all!

Kar

Beautiful Karlie graduated from high school! I'm so proud of her. (Even though this is a week late, I promise I'm still proud of her.) She'll be heading up to BYU-Idaho in January. (Still far, but 8 hours closer than she is now!) I realize that I don't write very much about Karlie. In fact, to some it may appear as if I only have one sister. But, that is false. It's just that my brown haired sister lives less than 5 minutes away from me and we're going to be living in the same apartment come August. And she calls me and says things like "Kay-Kay I miss you. Come get me," in a very pathetic voice.

We rarely call Karlie, Karlie. She is more commonly know as: Karkey, Kar-Kar, Karlini, Kar, Karkaroff, and basically any other way you can manipulate her name. What can I say, we have weird nicknames for each other. And for every one of those names (except Karkaroff, which Karlie hates, and we reserve for when we want to make her mad) there is a version of it for mine and Kelsie's names. For example: Kakey, Kay-Kay, Kakini, and Kate for me, and Kelkey, Kels-Kels, Kelsini, and Kels for Kelsie. Did you know that my sisters and I all have the same initials? It's true. They're KAS. Katie Anne, Kelsie Alexandra, and Karlie Alane.

Karlie is kinda messy. Which reminds me of this quote by Jane Austen that always makes me think of Kar.

"An artist can never do anything slovenly."

Karlie is also an artist. She is planning on majoring in art and draws on scraps of paper in church.

Karlie is loving. She always comes up to me and hugs me and says "Oh, Kakey."

Karlie is giving. Unlike my brown haired sister, who is stingy. Karlie always shared her Barbie's, Polly Pockets and baby dolls with me, and never hid them under her bed. My mom told me that when she took Karlie shopping for her last birthday when she would pick things up she would always mention how much Kelsie would like that particular item too.

Karlie has blue/green/gray eyes. How is that fair? She is also very tan right now. How is that fair? She gets to look all sun kissed and pretty and I have to look pasty and get a freaking bad sunburn after being in the sun for four hours even with sunscreen slathered on. Not that I'm jealous.

Karlie is funny. She cracks me up. I really don't know where she comes up with the things she says sometimes.

Karlie is a fast reader. Even faster than me. And she's read so many more books than me. I wonder if Dad takes her books away at 11 pm too? I'll have to find out.

Karlie, of all of my siblings, probably looks the most like me. She is very lucky.

Karlie is special. And I couldn't love her more.

I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world I'm coming home

Yes, it's true I am now home in FresYes.

But before we get to that, let's talk about Friday night!

(Also, get prepared because this is going to be a marathon post. I just have a lot to say. Luckily, Brooke has been training. Since she got 12 posts behind and then got caught up she is prepared for the longest post ever. You've been warned. But I promise there will be pictures, videos, singing, and wittiness.)

So, this summer there is a series of rooftop concerts the first Friday of every month in Provo. Last night was Megan Smith, who has a song on the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack. It was a lot of fun and it was a beautiful night.

There were so many people we couldn't even see the stage. So I have absolutely no idea what the singer's looked like.

I was obsessed with the paper lanterns they had hanging. I thought they were so pretty. I also got 2 new headbands. People had set up booths outside the concert, and one lady was selling these awesome homemade headbands for $4 each, so I bought 2. Here is Kelsie modeling one of them.

I think this rooftop concert series is such a good idea. It is one more reason why Provo is the best place to spend summers.

Now to the main event.

I am HOME!!!

Kelsie and I drove home to Fresno yesterday.

We're here for KarKar's high school graduation. Isn't she so pretty?

The drive was very uneventful except for the 28 police cars we saw along the way. We made it through ticketless, but there was a couple close calls. Boy, do those cops like to hide! At one point just outside of Bakersfield we saw 16 cops because they were in the middle of a man hunt. An armed robber was hiding out in a vineyard, but luckily they caught him.

This is what 99% of the drive through California looks like.

And this is how Kelsie and I spend most of our time driving.

Would you look at the price of gas in Barstow? $4.59!!! Luckily we've done this drive so many times we know to go a little bit further into the city to get gas, so we ended up getting gas for $3.91. Which is still ridiculous.

The weather was gorgeous until we started descending into the San Joaquin Valley. And then it got crappy fast. And it hasn't gotten any better since we've been home.

Did you know that Tatooine is actually located in Central California?

If you know anything about me, you'll know that I love McDonalds. One of the best sandwich's they have is the McChicken. In Provo, for some bizarre reason, they only have Hot 'n Spicy McChickens. Which are nasty. As soon as we could, Kelsie and I stopped and got regular McChickens.

The best part of the McChicken is the mayonnaise. Which I know is gross. But it's just so good!

After 11 and 1/2 hours of boring driving we arrived home. But we barely recognized our childhood dwelling. In the past few weeks my parents have gotten our house painted and the backyard redone. And it looks amazing.

Right now I'm laying on the couch on the porch while there is an awesome thunder and lightening storm pouring down on us. And it is freaking awesome!!!

So far home has been delightful. I've eaten steak. I've played the piano. I've practiced driving stick shift in my dad's Mustang (more on that later!). I've browsed our DVR recordings and plotted out what I'm going to watch. I've played with Ryen, Peyten, and Camden. And, I've spent time with my family, which is really the whole reason I come home.

Didn't I tell you it'd be a long post?

But wait! You can read more about it at http://kelsie-stuart.blogspot.com/

T Swizzle vs. Sisters

This is a picture of me and Kelsie at a football game my senior year of high school. I have always loved this picture. It was about this time that Kelsie and I stopped being enemies and started being best friends.

Here's the background. I played water polo and Kelsie was a cheerleader. My daily uniform consisted of swimming t-shirts, jeans, and a ponytail, and I had lighter hair. Kelsie, on the other hand, was more likely to dress up and look cute in popular fashions, and had darker hair. In this particular picture Kelsie came up to visit me in the bleachers between the JV and Varsity games.

Recently I realized it bears a striking resemblance to a certain popular song.

Don't we totally fit the description of the two girls in the song? Especially the part "she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts, she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleacher." Except the main difference is that Kelsie is not a man stealing witch with a B and I'm not that much of a creeper nerd. (Well maybe I am, but I'm trying really hard to convince the world otherwise. Plus, I would never acknowledge or draw attention to the fact that I was watching someone from the window, or wear a shirt like that.)

We also bear a striking resemblance to Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

When it feels like everything is wrong

I'm having one of those nights when all of a sudden life goes from being perfectly excellent to exceedingly crappy.

When it just feels like everything is wrong and you can't help but dwell on all of the little things that bug the crap out of you and you wish were different.

When you wish things would change, but know they won't.

When you feel frustrated because of things you can't control.

When you feel like crying because it just might help lift the weight pushing on your chest.

When all you want to do is talk to your sister and she helps remind you that everything will turn out OK but simultaneously joins in your unfair abusings and promises to check on you in the morning.

When you feel betrayed by life because it doesn't play by the rules and really isn't fair.

When you know you have to be the one to change, and work, and maintain positivity when the world is battling against you, because that is all you really can control.

The King's Speech

This movie was fantastic! I saw it last night at the dollar theater with Kelsie. Originally we planned on going to Costco and the grocery store to buy food in general, but more specifically ingredients for tortilla soup (since its so gosh darn cold and rainy right now). But instead we ended up going out to dinner at Cafe Rio and then going to the mall and the movies. We apparently have the attention spans of 5 year old's. We can't even make it to the grocery store without getting distracted.

But, back to the movie. I can totally see why it won Best Picture. The story was intriguing and the acting was amazing. For biggest transformation I'm going with Helena Bonaham-Carter/Bellatrix Lestrange/Mrs. Tim Burton. She was actually normal and totally hilarious!

Now, a big problem for me when I go to movies, specifically historical movies, is that there are a lot of parts that I think are hilarious that for some reason other people don't. Usually it's when they say something historically witty that makes the history nerd in my come out. Like when the queen jokes about Logue being a Bolshevik. For some reason that was hilarious to me but no one else, and I was the only one laughing my head off like a fool.

So, if you haven't seen this movie, GO SEE IT. You'll be glad you did.

Also, today my little brother is swimming in his first Valley's meet. He's been sick all week and still doesn't feel good. But I have total confidence in him.

Good luck Brenbutt!!!!!

Sister

Today is Kelsie's 20th birthday.

So in honor of her annoying presence in my life I present a "The Pictorial Gems of Kelsie Alexandra-dating back to 2005 when pictures start on my computer."

Enjoy.

Kels does not look like a happy camper. She was probably mad at me. Or it could be because she was 13. Either one is a viable option.

Here, Kelsie is realizing how much fun it can be in the stands. Especially when you are attending a football game at a baseball stadium.

Kelsie is notorious for putting stuff under her bed. But, unlike Karlie, her stuff is fairly organized. Kelsie would also hide stuff under her bed. For example she would hide her clean, folded clothes under her bed because she didn't want to put them away and she didn't want Mom to find out they were still out.

Aww, another birthday. Complete with a pink bag too!

Not only does she pull off the hair, but also the black feather boa.

Believe me, I've seen even bigger piles of laundry since this was taken.

A typical skype picture

In her natural habitat.

You're weird.

A not-on-purpose weird face.

Nice hair...

I'm pretty sure she's trying to water bend or something. At this point in the card game she was doing anything to ensure a win.

Jumping for joy that I was graduating!

These pictures make her seem so domestic.

I made the pizza. Not Kelsie. Don't let her fool you. She just wanted to take a picture with my masterpiece.

Isn't she so pretty?

Happy Birthday Sister!