once upon a a time

I tried on an immodest ridiculously poufy sparkley wedding dress that was a size too big. Also the most expensive in the store. Because my friends, you only buy a wedding dress once, so you have a lisense to try on one that weighs ten pounds just for fun.

I pretty much had to burrow in there from the bottom. That thing barely fit in the dressing room.

I am going shopping fer reals next week. But you won't get to see that one until June : )

Today I came very close to several different tragedies, but always somehow managed to get by. And I am happy about that.

Also that I got my itinerary for UKRAINE. January 13th is when I leave! Less than a month.
Plus, layover in Germany. Sweeeeet : )

One. More. Day. Of finals stress.

I miss my Elliott.
: (



luvs,
Kayla

ha ha

finals go away.

when life gives you a giant frozen lemon

President Hinkley said.."my plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight."

I don't think he ever lived in Rexburg. Just kidding!!! I miss President Hinkley. And so I tried to make a list of things that bring sunshiney to my soul in this frozen wasteland.

I have one week left in Rexburg, Idaho.
And these are the things I will miss:

• Cocoa Bean. Specifically Better Than Whatever cupcakes.
• Cheap Seats. A movie ticket, popcorn, and pop for under $10
  Pure Genius.
• Living right across the street from the temple. Literally, right across the street. No one in Rexburg lives as close... I will never have that chance again.
• Everybody knows what you believe.. the checker at walgreens.. the building maintenance guy...your gyno... everybody.
• Kind drivers.. if you accidentally cut someone off here and mouth the words "I'M SORRY!" then they give you a forgiving smile and move on with life
• It's socially acceptable to be engaged and 19 here. Which is awesome for me. On account of.. I am.

FINALS WEEK WATCH OUT... I just drank a lot of diet coke.
they should probably sponsor me at the rate I am going.
And yes I am in love with my Fiance's UW t-shirt


luvs,
Kayla


GO STUDYYYY DOO ITT

happy friday.

Today started off with a completely unoriginal hair-do that I stole from a blog tutorial.
tandsdaybook.blogspot.com..
it's cute.



My roomies and I decided to go see Life As We Know It. CUTEST MOVIE EVER.
It was buy a soda get popcorn free night. At cheap seats.
Epic.
We wore sweatpants.

Also they sang happy birthday to me and we ate this cake. I am 20 years old in apartment 211.



And then being so old got old.



and we dominated that cake


and ran about stealth like and left people gifts in the night




What did you do on your Friday?

leadership and the library.

Whooaaa there look at those stacks of book in the background. It appears as though Kayla is in the library. Well my friends, I am pleased to tell you, I am.

This is how gross my planner is this week. Check box after check box. I even had to go color coded. Not so much had to as there were cool colored pencils at work that I felt compelled to use. Last two weeks of school are a little hectic.

Now observe the stark contrast. This is the week after finals. Colorful. Bright. Hope.
If you are trying to read what it says backwards, yes, straight up it says, "cuddle Fiance. ALL DAY." This picture also says, "Kayla you can't get away with drinking that much diet coke and not crest white strip it up every now and again." Put it on my list.

Lately I have been mulling around the definition of a good leader, seeing how I will be in a position of leadership in Ukraine. This is what I have come up with so far:

• A leader isn't intimidated by the fluent Russian and awesomeness of others. A good leader knows how to appreciate and utilize the talents of others to improve our overall experience.
• A good leader doesn't have to have the upper hand on everything, a good leader knows the strengths of others and delegates out authority. Everyone is important.
  
• A good leader has a vision, and shares this vision with the group.
• A good leader has a plan, and is willing to work with others to make a super plan.
• A good leader leads by example
• A leader has the power to bring people together, to unite them in a common cause, to spread the passion that she feels to others.
• Leadership is the ability to influence, not tyranny
• Leadership is staying calm in the tough situations, and being strong enough to have others lean on you when times get tough, a leader inspires confidence.
• Integrity. Character. Kindness.
  

Any other thoughts? I'd be glad to hear them.

I am so excited to start this new chapter in my life called living in Europe and sleeping on a sweet pullout bed.

and now I am off to go work for 5 hours.

luvvvs,
Kayla

kind of a soap box blog post

Clean checks suck. I must have been disillusioned. Mainly by the fact my first semester I am pretty sure Brandi did all the cleaning. And I was left with the lame stuff that I couldn't mess up. And now I am the Brandi, having a spazz attack because it looks like no one has ever cleaned the toilet before.

I read something sad today. I follow many blogs ,and in one of the blogs an entertaining beautiful creative girl told her readers that she is finally getting help for body image issues that she has been fighting her whole life. My heart sank, because someone that I think is so amazing to me has to deal with something that is so hard. And I started to think about the pressure that we as women have to live up to this impossible ideal.... We are never thin enough, smart enough, or talented enough, and the media that we are bombarded with relentlessly reminds us of this. We are being asked to be paradoxes that can't exist, and with the drive that we have to better ourselves, we end up comparing and beating ourselves down, saying I have too much of this and not enough of that.

I keep a picture in the bathroom where my roomies and I get ready that reads, " If only you could see yourself the way I see you, you would know of your infinite worth." The Savior is in the background. To Him we are good enough, to Him we are worth something, and if we come closer to him we will feel his infinite love come into our lives. I am far from perfect in this aspect, so maybe I am writing this for myself, but maybe too that someone might remember that they are never alone.,and that they are fabulous and lovely, and with the hope that someday we can all look in the mirror and smile because we know who we are, daughters of our Heavenly Father, and that we wouldn't be here if we weren't good, if we weren't worth something.

scrub you clean

WE HAVE OUR DIET COKE

WE HAVE OUR IPODS CHARGED AND READY

WE HAVE.... A CHAOTIC MESS OF AN APARTMENT...

AND WHITE GLOVE TOMORROW.

I BOUGHT A MOP TODAY... AND MAGIC ERASERS.. AND TONIGHT THE GIRLS OF THAT APARTMENT THAT WE LIVE IN ARE GOING TO GO ON A MAD CLEANING RAGE

and I just texted Fiance and said, Honey, we have a mop. He is super happy probably. He is happy whenever I do anything that resembles domesticness.

Some of the best memories happen during white glove all nighters... no sleep.. random fumes from various cleaners in the air...

don't believe me??

first semester cleaning party. 5 AM.
WATCH IT.