DANCING

Every hit those moments when you feel like you aren't living life to your fullest? That's how I feel right now.  I'm just lounging on my couch, looking at pictures in my past where I literally went dancing every weekend.

And now I want to go dancing.

Not the dances where there are only a select few dancing in the middle of the dance floor.
Or the dances where half the people are dancing and the other half are "too cool" to dance.

I'm talking a dance where you go and EVERYONE is dancing like mad, and every two seconds some random stranger is pressed up against your back. Or even better, a dance where you get covered in paint or powder or some other substance. Even when the paint gets in your eyes, you keep dancing anyway.  The kind of dance where you dance until you are exhausted, but you don't even realize you are exhausted until you are driving home.

I want to go dancing.

Bangs, or no bangs?

So I've been debating about how I want to change up my hairstyle for the last few months... so today I tried doing the online thing where they show you how different hairstyles look on you... and they looked ridiculous.  So I decided to go to my trusty friend, PAINT, and see what I could do myself.  And I want to know, what should I do with my hair??

** Note.  I realize that I look quite deathly in these pictures.  And that my drawings are quite ridiculous.  But I'm asking you to look past all that and tell me what I should do!

This is me, with no makeup and my hair pulled back. 

This is what I would look like with no bangs.  

 Side swept bangs, maybe?

 Blunt bangs!

 Platinum blond, no bangs, short hair

 Platinum blonde, short hair, side swept bangs

Which one, which one? Or, you could tell me another hair-do that I didn't draw.  I just want a change.

Haha, I just read over this blog and laughed out loud.  This is so ridiculous, but I'm posting anyways. :)

It's been a while

Ok, so it may have been a while since I have written on this thing.  I think about this blog a lot, actually.  Something traumatic will happen during my day and I think, "I'll blog about it tonight." But then I get home, and either I have a million papers to write or "Social Network" is on TV and blogging never gets done.

Is it bad that I'm not an athletic person? Like... at all? Or that I never, EVER work out? My sister said that I'm a skinny fat (116 lbs, but no muscle on me.) I can live with it, but I really do want to be healthy.  I try to eat my fruits, or walk briskly as I walk from one end of campus to the next. But most of the time, I just feel like I need to be out there DOING SOMETHING.

So please, tell me how you motivate yourself to work out, what you do, and how you simply set aside time to do it!

Ok, let's do a brief rundown of this semester, shall we?

1. I'm married.  And in school.  All of my married friends told me that school would be SO much easier once you were married because you had less of a life, and you and significant other would just be responsible and study all the night long.  Not so.  Not even a little bit.  Once I step foot into my apartment, all productivity stays on the doorstep.  As soon as I see my husband, all I want to do is curl up with him, watch hilarious YouTube videos, and talk about nothing for hours.  There really is nothing like being married to your best friend.  I love Lucas more than I have ever loved another person, and I am amazed that this love keeps growing. Ah!
2. Despite the fact that I can't do homework in my apartment, I'm doing fairly well this semester! Got through my first round of midterms, and am about to start my next round next week.  I have a huge paper due on Wednesday (which my professor told me we should take 30 hours on.)
1. Ok, I'm going to digress. The above professor is super intense.  We have two 30-hour papers due this semester, and one 80-hour paper due as well.  Not to mention daily quizzes on tons of reading every day in class, plus two midterms and a final.  Oh, and did I mention it was behavioral neuroscience? Weirdly... it's one of my favorite classes.  
3. I'm President of BYU psychology club, Psych Association.  This is way crazier than I thought it would be, but way more fulfilling than I thought it would be as well.  I love my major!
4. I'm the office supervisor over two restaurants on campus.  Crazy sauce.  I work about 20 hours a week doing that, but I love all of the employees so it is just magical.
5. I'm a research assistant to health psychologist Dr. Chad Jensen at BYU, and we are doing a ton of studies right now.  I'm personally responsible for recruitment for a weight loss study (haha).  I love doing research with this guy!
6. I'm also a research assistant for health psychologist Dr. Patrick Steffen.  He does a lot of stress tests, which is really fun.  Its my job to get people as stressed as possible (most of the time by telling them that they are doing a bad job at something) to see how they react.  
7. I try to cook, I really do.  But most of the time, we eat left overs/ mooch off of friends/ go to events on campus for the free food.  I try to cook at least one delicious meal a week (in HUGE quantities so I won't have to cook for days.)  A week ago I made potato soup that I literally just finished yesterday.  Yum.  
8. Cleaning... well, I was so much better at that BEFORE school started.  Now most of the time our textbooks and assignments are strewn across the coffee table and counters. 
9. If you thought that making friends when you were single was any sort of challenge, wait until you are married.  You now have to make couple friends, and so that's FOUR relationships that have to match to work.  Thankfully, we were blessed with amazing neighbors and previous couple friends, so the transition hasn't been too hard.
10. I'm trying my best to be the best person I can be.  I'm coming to understand myself more and more each day. Remind me one day to post about shadow complexes and how they are changing my life.

I love my life.  Seriously.  I'll lay in bed and just cry, telling Lucas how happy I am right now.  I may be swamped with school, essentially always sick with some sort of illness, and have no social life, but even I cannot deny how incredibly blessed I am.  In relief society the other day, the women giving the lesson was saying how blessed she was because she came from a family where all of her family members were active, where her parents where still together, that she had no debt, and that is why she was so grateful.  And I realized then, that I didn't have any of those things.  But in no way did I feel like I hadn't been tremendously blessed. In no way have can I deny that I haven't had a freaking amazing life.  Has it been bumpy? Sometimes, tremendously.  But I have never, at any point in my life, thought that I had nothing to be grateful for. 

Wow, this is a long blog.  I could seriously write about a million things right now. Who knows? Maybe I will in the next few weeks.  Now, wouldn't that be exiting? :)

House-Wivery

In four days, I will have been married to Lucas for two months.  To be quite honest, I was terrified to become a WIFE.  Yes, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of forever with Lucas, and that I wanted to spend all of my free time with him, but there was something very ominous about the title "wife." I have never been much of a cook, I am incredibly messy, I like to buy junk food and watch movies late at night.... and I just couldn't see myself being a wife.  

I'm pleased to announce that house-wivery is becoming easier as the days tick on.  I don't know why, but by having a new apartment where everything inside of it is mine, I want my apartment to be clean! I always think to myself, "what if this friend came over to see our apartment for the first time, and it was a mess? I MUST CLEAN!" So I find myself doing my dishes after I eat, cleaning the living room a million times a day, and even - if you can believe it - putting away my clothes after I wear them. THE MADNESS! 

As far as cooking goes, it is an ongoing adventure.  Sometimes I cook meals and pronounce "I am a freaking awesome cook!" while other times I make meals and tell Lucas, "You don't have to eat it... really, you don't."  there have been a few cooking highlights since we have been married.  The other day, spur of the moment, I made lemon chicken that was to die for.  Yesterday, I made homemade cookies and cream ice-cream (that I am eating right now.  Tell me, is 10am too early for a bowl of ice-cream?) Let's see... oh ya, I made this AWESOME Caribbean Jerk Chicken.  Seriously, if you want the recipe, I will be more than happy to give it to you, as all should partake in this chicken. 

All in all, house-wivery isn't all that bad.  I guess it helps that I am madly in love with my husband, and doing things like cleaning and cooking and massages are just many ways that I like to show him that I love him. Now the real question... what to cook for tonight? 

Now, that makes a girl feel good!

So I logged into blogger today, and it sure has changed since I started blogging.  Did you know they have a STATS TRACKER?? I get excited because my page has had 3500 views.  Like, really excited.  (Yes, in the back of my mind, I realize that my mom and sister probably make up 2700 of those views, but still.) 

So I was just clicking around, noticing that on my highest day I got 6 views in one day! Just think, half a dozen people that day thought about me enough to want to see how I was doing. Now, that makes a girl feel good!

I have to say, my favorite stat was about how people found me.  About 90% or so just googled my blog name, but there was one instance where someone found my blog by searching "do they have knee high socks at Fred Meyer?" confused? Go here: http://smalltownsideeffects.blogspot.com/2010/05/cosmic-bowling.html. It was a proud moment.

P.S. I'm still not well enough acquainted with blogger to know how to post an actual shortcut to other blog posts of mine.  I actually had to google "do they have knee high socks at Fred Meyer to find the above blog post, which, sadly, is going to skew my stats.  Sigh, what I do for you, dear readers.

Hello!

Hey, guess what? Since I have last posted, I have been engaged, then married, then married for a month.  Crazy, right? I figure, maybe I will try giving this blogging thing a shot. Maybe....

Why not become A BLOGGING QUEEN?

I could blog every-day about everything that happens to me! I can make delicious foods and take pictures of it (or draw pictures of it) and post them here! I'll go on adventures and actually tell you about them, or pick out cute outfits and post pictures of them! I'll tell you all about my school load and course load, take pictures of my homework, let you know when I need to go to the bathroom.  Oh, and now that I'm married, I can fill you in on all the intimate details about me and Lucas' life! I'll take pictures of the apartment and of Lucas and of my doorstep and post them all here.  It's perfect!

Or... I could keep up my tradition and mad post about 3 times a semester. And keep in mind, these posts probably won't be about what's currently going on in life, but about a past event that I thought of randomly and thought "... ya, that's blogable."

So here am I, touching base with all of you... ok, let's face it, there is no "all of you" anymore, as probably next to no one reads my blog anymore.  But it's worth a shot, so here I go!

Let's catch you up!... tomorrow.

Proposal!

**disclaimer - this very well may be the gushiest blog that I have ever written. Beware...**

If you haven't already guessed by the title... I AM ENGAGED!! After two years of friendship with Lucas, four months of wanting to date him, and one year of exclusively dating him, it has happened. :) I am completely and utterly in love with Lucas Duraccio, and I am exciting to spend the rest of eternity with him. He is everything that I could ever want in a man; he is kind, caring, funny, sweet, compassionate, athletic, musical, spiritual, intelligent, understanding, sensitive... and I know that he loves me unconditionally. There is something special in knowing that you can be completely yourself around somebody... that you can tell him anything, confess your deepest darkest corners to him, and be your dorky self in front of him. Agh, I love him!!!

OK, ok, on to the proposal story. :)

So, in the beginning of January Lucas and I went ring shopping together. I picked out my top 3 rings from a few jewelers, and told Lucas that he could pick (though he knew my very favorite, lol.) So for the last month I have just been waiting for the signs that he was going to propose. The sunday before he proposed, he told me that he was going to get my parents numbers from my phone eventually... well, later that Sunday, I was playing Zelda by myself in Lucas' apartment (he was talking to his parents in his bedroom) and all of the sudden I get a call from my mom.

Mom: "Why did Lucas just try calling me?"

Kara: ".............. mom, I don't think I'm supposed to know that."

Mom: "Why?.... oh crap! Is he there?"

(Lucas peeks his little head into the room.)

Kara : " .. .. . uh... "

Mom: "Ah! Don't tell him I told you, DON'T TELL HIM I TOLD YOU!"

Kara: "... uh, ok see you later!"

Lucas never suspected, MWAHAHAHA.

Later that week my dad called and spilled the beans. Bless Lucas' little heart, trying to keep this all from me while my family can't keep a secret. So from Sunday forward I was suspicious of everything Lucas did.

It's a tradition for Lucas and I to go on a real date at least once a week. So on Wednesday Lucas tells me

Lucas: "Oh, I have a date idea for this weekend! Let's go to this concert in Salt Lake."

Kara: (instantly suspicious.) "Oh, what is the concert?"

Lucas: "Um, it has violins and singing in it."

Kara: "OK."

Lucas: "We have to dress up fancy though.
Kara: (even more suspicious...) "Sounds great!"

So Saturday arrives, and I curl my hair and put on my witch dress. (It is black and purple and always reminds me of what a witch would wear.) Lucas came over, and he was looking as handsome as always. As you are probably aware, last Saturday was BEAUTIFUL (50 degrees is February? Yes please!) so just as Lucas and I are about to head up to Salt Lake City...

Lucas: "Hey... since it's such a nice day outside, why don't we go and enjoy it?"
Kara: "Ok! What do you want to do?"

Lucas: "I don't know, ... go to the park where we had our first kiss?"

Kara: INSTANT SUSPICION ONCE AGAIN. ".... sounds good to me!"

So we go to the park (little do I know that our friends Dawna, Sean, and Emily are watching/taking pictures of this whole event) and we walk around the park a few times. Eventually, we end up at the bench near where we had our first kiss.

We sit there for a while, kissing and saying sweet nothings to each other, when suddenly Lucas says, "Kara... what if I told you I loved you?

Kara: "Well, Bear (my nickname for Lucas has and forever will be bear) I would have to say that I love you too."

Lucas: "What if I told you... I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you?"

Kara: (so suspicious that I'm practically screaming) "well, I would say that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too."

Lucas: "What if..." (Lucas gets down on one knee) "I got down on one knee..."

Kara: Pure excitement radiating through face

Lucas: "and what if... I took out this little box from my pocket..."

Kara: (Still saying nothing, but getting more and more excited.)

Lucas: "and what if... what if THIS WAS TOTALLY A FAKE PROPOSAL?" (Lucas opens ring box... and there is no ring.)

Kara: "wha...."

(notice how I am gently poking the box...)

Kara: (now realizing this is a prank and that engagement is not going to occur): "Gaaaaahhhhh!" (slaps Lucas and jumps up.)

Kara: "Are you serious right now?"

Lucas: "Hahahaha, I totally got you!"

(The following pictures show the fleeting emotions that I felt. Bummed - defeated - "you think you are so funny, don't you?" - "I forgive.")

Later that night, after taking me out to burgers to further throw me off from his real proposal, Lucas took me to the state capitol building. We found a secluded spot that overlooked all of Salt Lake City, including the Salt Lake Temple. We kissed, hugged a lot (it was kinda cold) and just talked until suddenly, Lucas was on one knee. At first, I kind of shouted "You better not be faking again..." Lucas just smiled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the same box he had earlier. With a smile, Lucas said the words "Kara, will you marry me?" (At least, that is what I think he said... I kind of don't remember what he said that very moment.. my brain kind of just stopped.) All I could do was look at the ring box and say, "There is a ring in there...". Finally, I remembered that a response was kind of necessary in these sort of situations so...

I said yes.

We are to be sealed for time and all eternity on June 15th in the Bountiful Utah temple. If you are reading my blog... you are probably invited to the reception. :) I have never been more happy than I am right now.

I'm butter

Why the title? BECAUSE I AM ON A ROLL! A blogging roll, but a roll nonetheless.

I was just at Lucas' apartment watching "How I met your mother" when I should have been studying, and I started to fall asleep. I ended up on the floor completely passed out. Lucas and I had to both be back on campus at four - me, to do some research assisting with my lab partner, and him to go to Men's Chorus. But I, for the life of me, could not get off of that floor. Lucas kept trying to pick me up, but I kept "dead-body"ing him. Finally, FINALLY, I put on my boots and we were out the door.

We were both already running late at this point, but as we were walking up to campus Lucas ran into like... a thousand people he knew. So we stopped and had a convo with every single person. We are slowly making our way to our buildings and... what do you know... I get a text from my research partner. She. Isn't. Coming.

BLAH. So now I'm on campus, and I'm blogging instead of studying, which is almost worse than watching "How I met your mother" as far as procrastinating goes.

That's all. I guess I can go study now. :)

Pants, people, pants!

I hate, hate, HATE when girls wear leggings as pants. Especially when they aren't even wearing a long shirt.

That is all. :)

I mainly just wanted to say that I blogged two days in a row. GO ME!

GASP! Sleepwalking?

Hola, senor! :)

For your information, I am writing this blog out of pure procrastination of studying for an exam that I have to take tomorrow. And I haven't really studied for it. But as I was just about to settle down to study for my test (aka, lay on the couch) I thought, "you know what? You haven't written a blog in a while. You should do that instead." So here I am.

I don't even know if anyone reads my blog anymore, but I hear one of the biggest ways you can get rid of stress is by writing every day. And so I think, hey, why not write in my lovely blog? Even if no one does read it?

Today I learned how to strap somebody up to a machine that will monitor their body waves. It measures, like, everything, and it was a bit over my head, but it was cool. :) I also got to learn some interesting facts in my social psychology class about gender differences. Some researchers conducted a survey in New York City where they had their research assistants approach random strangers and simply ask, "Do you want to have sex with me tonight?" After recording all of their responses, it was found that 0-1% of women agreed to this question. However, a whopping 99% of men agreed to having sex with a complete stranger. Mind. Blown.

Overall, life is just really busy. I know that is all I ever talk about, so I'm going to try to not focus on that anymore. Readers, did you know that I have the tendency to sleep walk? And sleep talk? And sleep laugh and sleep smile and sleep look-people-in-the-eyes-and-freak-them-out?

Once, I woke up sitting on the edge of my bed with my phone in my hand.

Once, I woke up standing in front of the fridge.

Once, in the middle of the night, I rolled over and looked at my roommate and started laughing.

I have walked into my living multiple times, only to go back to bed later.

...... oh what the heck, I think it is time to tell my favorite sleep walking/talking story of all.

So I was over at my sisters house when I was about 16, and she wanted to watch the movie "Donny Darco" or whatever it's called. (Really good movie, by the way, I would recommend it if I knew what it was called.) It was just me, my sister, and her roommate Hannah. Right before we started the movie, I distinctly remember telling Ashley that she couldn't lay down on the couch because she was going to fall asleep. Ashley assured me that she wouldn't.

She did.

Fast. Like... within the first 15 minutes of it.

So me and Hannah, this roommate that I don't really know but kinda knew but not enough to not feel kinda awkward are watching this movie together. It gets to a part where the main male lead is just walking around, and my sister jolts into a sitting position and somewhat screams,

....

Now, for those of you who have seen this movie, you will know that there are no penguins. But my sister looked and was acting so awake, that both Hannah and I were waiting for the penguins to appear on the screen. Within seconds, my sister falls back onto the couch in a heap. Hannah and I started laughing, and I couldn't wait for my sister to regain consciousness to tell her this story. (It was extremely funny at the time.)

So, I waited until the movie was over, and then shook my sister awake. She sat up and looked at me, so I suspected she was awake. I proceeded to tell all about her penguin story and how she had been sleep talking. Hannah and I are laughing; meanwhile, Ashley looked something like this.

So.. I realize that Ashley, who normally would have laughed and asked "Did I really do that?", was still asleep. So I started tapping her on her forehead, pushing her around, until finally she shouted at me "I'M TIRED, KAR-UH!" This only resulted in Hannah and I laughing until we were drooling.

All of the sudden, Ashley (who was wearing a pink night-gown at the time) throws her night gown over her head and shouts, "OH GOOD, you didn't change me. I would have been PISSED if you had changed me." She looked something like this:

So, after much convincing that she hadn't been changed and that she really needed to go to bed, I finally got her tucked away into her bed. As I was tucking the blankets around her, Ashley looked up at me with the most concerned look on her face and asked me, "Kara........ what color are the socks?" Fighting back laughter I replied, "Purple, Ashley, the socks are purple." With that, Ashley's face beamed with happiness and she finally closed her eyes to go to sleep.

HAH! I did it! I wrote the sleep walking blog. It wasn't as good as I imagined it would be, but at least I attempted!

Enjoy life!

3 Day Weekend!

Things I am grateful for (right this very second)

1. Three day weekends. I love being able to sleep when I want and for however long I want, love being able to procrastinate homework until Monday without any consequences, love staying up late, love spending time to do nothing... I love it all. Well... until I try to go to bed by 11pm tonight... my body might have a hard time readjusting to my previous sleep schedule.
2. Yellow flowers. A week ago Lucas got me a bouquet of all the yellow flowers... yellow just makes me so happy, especially when it is next to freezing outside.
3. Friends, even when they are all the way in India.
4. Blankets where one side is velvety and soft and the other side is fluffy and soft (aka, the blankets you get from COSTCO.)
5. Healthy hair. My hair was getting so long, but I cut a few inches off of it. Now I have healthy medium length hair.
6. Education. I love learning, and I love being able to learn skills that are applicable in the real world.
7. Lucas. (I am about to get a little gushy here, so skip ahead to #8 if you want to skip the gush.) I absolutely love that boy. Why? Because I can be my absolute self around him. He also lets me put my freezing cold toes on his stomach to warm them up. THAT is true love, dear readers.
8. My family. I am grateful for wonderful parents that raised me right, grateful for a set of siblings that couldn't be more different, and grateful for my little ones that I love more than anything in this world. :)
9. My Savior.
10. All the little things, like warm socks, hairspray, my new phone, nice carpet, boots, scarves, books, music, my guitar... all the little things that could make my list so much longer.

I could go on and on, but I do have homework to do that I have procrastinated this three day weekend. This blog is far from being awesome, but I want to get back into the habit of writing more than three times a semester.

Bye!

New Year!

Ok, I don't have a lot of time to commit to a blog today. So what we will do here is a quick and schnappy rundown of what my semester is going to look like!! and... here we go!

1. I'm taking 16 credits, all classes for my major. The class that I am the most excited about would have to be my health psychology class.
2. I am also doing about 6 hours of research (unpaid) with Dr. Steffan, and we are researching all the things. He literally has several large experiments going on. I get to wear a lab coat and stare at people until they get super nervous. Should be fun.
3. I am going to be doing research for another prof. (Dr. Dyches) for about 5 hours a week. Paid. yah baby... :)
4. I am also working 25 hours a week, mainly at my two beautiful stores Legends Grille and Blue Line Deli. :)
5. I will also be volunteering about 3 hours a week (I wish I could do more) at either a suicide hotline call center or at a women's abuse shelter home. Both of which require about 12 hours of training. I am really excited to keep volunteering!
6. Going to try to get a good 2 hours of studying in each day.
7. Be in love with Lucas and spend time with him.
8. Oh ya... I guess I am going to try to have a social life. No promises though.

I also don't have my beautiful fish Gustavo (and he misses me very badly), I no longer have my best friend as a roommate (I miss her even more than Gustavo misses me), and I no longer sleep. Well, maybe a few hours a night.

Even with all this stress, and with big decisions in the future, I still am just so happy. I am where I am supposed to be, meeting the people that I need to meet to become the person I need to become. I love my roommates, love my friends, love my boyfriend, love my best friend, love my family. So much love. And I love you, whoever is reading my blog. I really do. :)

If your semester is going to be tough this semester, YOU CAN DO IT. :)

(Lucas and I in front of the "Up" house.) :)