Brain Purge

I'm finally done. After weeks of reading boring textbooks about bacteria and cramming every last bit of Spanish I could into my poor little head, I've finally finished all of my finals. Every last thing I've learned this semester has been purged, somewhat ungracefully, onto scantrons and scribbled down on paper. I don't have a worry in the world for a solid 3 weeks!! Three weeks of pure bliss. What's the first thing I'm going to do with this new found freedom you ask? Well...I don't want to brag or anything, but guess who gets to go to a previewing of The Hobbit tonight?! That's right, I get to see one of this year's most anticipated movies 4 hours before the rest of you. I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I'd usually try not gloat as you're so obviously envious of me, but I'm in too much of a mood to feel any remorse for you right now. Don't worry though, I'll for sure keep you posted about how amazing the movie is when I'm done watching it. As for now, you can try to stave off your jealously by watching these trailers.

Woof. Sorry. I'll get off my high horse now. Excuse me for having a bout of selfishness. I hope you get to see this movie soon and then we can talk about how fantastic it is together. 

Life Lessons from the Bluths

A tragedy happened very recently. The arborist came to my house and cut down a bunch of trees and also happened to take out the cable to our internet in the process. As a result, I've been unable to blog for a while! See what I mean? Tragedy. But look who's back!! This girl. It's been actually pretty nice not having internet for a while though. I've been able to read more and I've had to actually get all my work done on campus before I go home which makes me get things done quicker rather than procrastinating everything. I've also been able to spend lots more time watching my Arrested Development DVDs. Which brings me to today's blogging topic. You know that perfect family you see walking on the streets and you think to yourself "Wow...I hope one day my family is as perfect as that one is." Yep. That's definitely not the Bluth family. BUT that doesn't mean they don't make wonderful examples. I've actually learned a lot of important life lessons from them, and I'd like to pass them along. Think of it as an early Christmas present. You're welcome!

#1: Think before you speak. Tobias so kindly teaches us this important lesson every time he opens his mouth. Please don't ever use any of the following wordings. Please.

#2: Sometimes you should listen when someone says your idea stinks. Constructive criticism is there for a purpose kids. Take it from George on this one. Sometimes ideas like installing a hot tub in the attic and cooking food in it realllly should not be acted on. Take that into mind the next time someone tries to kindly tell you that maybe you should rethink things. It could be the difference between severe dehydration and an actually good idea. (Youtube is lame and doesn't have a clip of it, so if you want to see George learning his lesson feel free to follow the link. http://www.hulu.com/watch/2008 )

#3: Perfectly timed songs can touch hearts when simple words can't. 

#4: It's ok if you find quirks about the people you love endearing, just don't expect everyone to agree with you. Although a mayon-egg does sound pretty cute. 

#5: If at first your magic trick fails, cover it up with something else that might be impressive. If that fails too, maybe a bit of practice is needed. 

And finally #6: Family comes first. Followed closely by breakfast. 

Quiero Compartir Contigo

I'm going to annoy everyone with my limited Spanish with this blog post, but I don't know what's happening...I've been on a kick of listening to Spanish songs lately! Ok, so maybe I do know what's happening and maybe it has to do with the fact that this one kid is coming home from Spain in a mere 8 days. EIGHT DAYS!! Want proof? Here.

 

So what if I have a countdown on my phone. So what if it counts down until the seconds. So what if I've been counting down for a good solid four weeks now. Judge me. But for real you guys I'm dying here with how much I'm in love with this one song by Carla Morrison called Compartir (I'll go ahead and be your Google Translater and tell you compartir means "to share." You're welcome). Now, now, now, don't you leave just because you won't understand a word in this song. I promise that it's cute, and touching, and it's even a little indie. If nothing else, it's got a pretty good little melody and could be background noise for you while you're studying or something (because we all know silence is awkward). So give it a listen. Please? For me? You're the best.

See? It's pretty alright no? Ok one more. This one is because Justin and Selena recently broke up and it's been all up in my Twitter feeds which has made me remember this pretty little boy who is practically the Spanish speaking version of Justin. Not gonna lie, I actually hate this song. BUT thanks to Justin and Selena this song popped up into my head. Stupid, devil celebrities....

Buh. Painful. 

We Are Family

I'm going to do something I don't usually do and take a moment to be serious. I know, I know boring right? I'm sorry. Hopefully next week I'll have something more lighthearted and fun to read. I won't blame you if you give up right now and just stop reading. For those of you who are being troopers and sticking it out with me for this one, I greatly appreciate it. You're great. Hey, you know who else is great? My family. I'm giving a talk in church on Sunday about families, so I've been thinking about them a lot lately, plus it's November and a season to be grateful. As a result, I've come up with some top reasons why my family is awesome.

#1: I have 8 amazing role models. That's right, EIGHT!! I used to only have 5, but then all my brothers decided that getting married would be a good idea, and three more amazing people were added to my life. I can't think of a time in my life where I have ever felt ashamed or disappointed to be a part of my family (well...except for maybe the time Dad decided to storm out on the court and take the ball from the referee during my basketball game in 5th grade. Love you Dad!). I've always had the greatest examples growing up in both my brothers and my parents. I've learned a lot from them over these last 20 years of my life and I now learn a lot from my brothers as I watch them raise families of their own. I don't think I'll ever stop learning from them. I can't wait until I start a family of my own and hope that I can be as great a mother as I my mom is, or be as loving and supportive as my dad is. Who knows, maybe I'll even be as smart as he is one day and know everything my kids will ever ask me. As for now, I'll sit back and quietly take notes so I can remember how to be just as good as all 8 of them. 

How could a girl not look up to these people?

 #2: I've never felt alone. How I got so lucky as to have such an awesome support system, I'll never know. What I do know is I'm incredibly grateful for everything they've ever done for me and continue to do. My family has been there through years of volleyball games, rash decisions, silly relationships, stressful schooling, and those lovely awkward teenage years where I knew everything there ever was to know about the world. Please, take a moment and visualize me as a stubborn, all-knowing, bratty preteen girl. Yikes! They stuck through it though and have supported me with every decision I've ever made. They were there when I decided I wanted to be a dancer and again when I decided I hated it. They were there that time I wanted to tryout to be an SBO in high school and hugged me as I bawled when I didn't make it. They were even there when I decided that I didn't want to do nursing anymore after having been so set on it for as long as I can remember. Never once did they tell me I was foolish, or get annoyed when I changed my mind twenty times. I can go to anyone in my family with anything that I might be worried about and they'll listen and help me through it. How lucky is that?

#3: They produce good looking children. Seriously though, look at these kids and tell me that doesn't make my family 10x cooler.

 I'm lucky to have one niece here in Logan with me and play with her all I can. The other two live in Wisconsin 1,429.5 miles away from me. I miss them like crazy. Thank the stars for Facebook, Instagram, and Skype. It's going to be rough when Trevin leaves for med school this summer and takes Addie with him. Who is going to read books and sing Primary songs with me? Definitely time to start a niece and nephew fund so I can visit everyone.

#4: My family is forever. Most of the people who will read this already know that I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but if you happened to come across this and have no idea who I am, I believe that my family will be together forever, even after death. I'm so incredibly thankful that I'll be able to have the wonderful relationship I have with them for eternity. I know I'll be able to see them again because of the covenants my parents have made in the temple and I can't wait to be reunited with my loved ones that have already passed away. My family brings me a joy that is unlike any other and I look forward to the day when I find a spouse whom I can spend the rest of eternity with. 

In front of the Brigham City temple with G&G Hanks 

I could go on with these reasons for ages, but I'll stop here since this post is getting long and I'm sure you're getting tired of me bragging about my family. I really am so blessed to be in such an incredible family. I am thankful each day for them and the things they do for me. If you happen to be family and are reading this, I love you. If you're just a friend and stuck through this whole thing, I love you too.  

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Since the beginning of time, I've always been a huge fan of dressing up. For the past couple years however, I've hit a little bit of a rough patch with the whole creativity thing. Maybe it's because I'm awful at making decisions and always wait until the last minute to decide what to be, or maybe I had just hit a bit of a plateau with it. Whatever it was, it's a sad little journey when Halloween rolls around and you have to Google search "funny Halloween costumes" to come up with something mediocre for parties. The picture below is one of those unfortunate costumes that my friend Google came up with for me. Don't judge me.

I'm a Blackeyed Pea. Get it? Thanks for nothin' Google

After horribly bad pun outfits and being an indian for two different years, I made a promise to myself that this year I'd redeem myself. Well ladies and gents, I'm pleased to announce that after weeks of playing around with multiple ideas, I finally settled on a costume that is definitely one of my favorites that I've done in a while. After a few runs to the fabric store and a couple golden finds at the DI, I managed to come up with this little number.

I'll go ahead and brag and tell you BOTH our costumes are homemade. Praise us.

Thank the heavens my bad streak is finally over. And for added pleasure, here are more pictures from my family's Halloween party we enjoyed this evening. Only the finest costumes for the Hanks fam. 

 Me and my niece Addison as Minnie Mouse. She's adorable.

 Annual cousin picture. Toothbrush and toothpaste, Mad Hatter, and Rainbow Brite. So much creativity in one picture

 And again because I love these people

 Mom and Dad as Amazing Racers. (really just wanted excuses to wear sweats)

 My brother is "God's Gift to Women." With a face like that, who could resist right?

 Full body shot. No, we don't ever really smile.

Trevin was my Uncle Curt this year. The resemblance is scary

Coolest. Family. Ever.

Stranger Danger

Today a stranger on the shuttle started a conversation with me.  It went like this:
Stranger: "Are you done for the day?"
Kylie: "No unfortunately I'm not. I have work until 1 and then classes again until 5:30. Are you done?"
S: "Yeah I am! That's too bad you have to come back. Where do you work?"
K: "I do the financing in a soils lab."
S: "Oh so you're a dirty girl?" *cue creepy half smile*
K: "Ha...ha...." *blank stare*
Ok before I go on here, I'm going to go ahead and give you a visual of what said smile looked like. Ready? Here it is.

Mmmm...Mommy like

And that's where I stopped talking and found my phone to be incredibly interesting. Now, you might be thinking that I'm an awfully harsh person who's overreacting and that this man was merely trying to have a nice conversation with someone instead of staring blankly out of the window for the whole bus ride, and maybe you're right. Maybe this guy is my future spouse and I should track him down and get his number and woo the crap out of him. Maybe he just gave me his normal smile...HAHA who am I kidding? That guy was a creep.

Zombies, Nick Cage, and Sharks..Oh My!

Guess what I just remembered? The Walking Dead season 3 starts in a mere four days. FOUR DAYS!! Do you understand the words that are coming out of  my mouth?! The Walking Dead--one of the best post apocalyptic zombie shows ever made (Zombieland is of course up there, but that's a subject for another day)--is finally back after it made us stew over Andrea's mystery guardian as well as revealing the craziest freaking news there is about the zombie infection (Shane's a zombie? WHAAAAAAT??). Who cares you ask? Ah, my dear friend....it's clear that you haven't yet discovered the incredibly graphic, incredibly suspenseful, incredibly thrilling TV show that is The Walking Dead. Either that or you're one of those annoying people that doesn't watch grade A television purely to say they are in some way different from the rest of the world. If that's the case, then you might as well go jump off a cliff because this show is awesome. But don't just take my word for it. See for yourself. 

Now who's excited?! Oh man...just four more days kids. We can do it. 

In other news, Halloween is right around the corner and I've been trying to decide what I should be. So far the top picks are Nick Cage or a shark, but I'm open to any and all suggestions. (Leaning toward the shark though. Especially these ones http://geekcrafts.com/?s=shark+costume )

90s Magic

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of electronic music. So today whilst procrastinating homework like all good college students do, I came across this beautiful number and instantly fell in love with it. It's electronic, it's by a British group, it's super weird, and it makes me take a trip back to the 90s. Seriously, these kids know how to use a green screen almost as well as The Shamen do.

And as for you cats who don't know who The Shamen are, educate yourselves. 

Even the Cats Want Shoes

Well cyberworld, it's finally happened. I've finally jumped on almost every bandwagon out there. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, skinny cords, and now a blog. And because I want shoes just as bad as those cats do, I've decided to give way to the blogging trend. But while I wallow over the fact that the internets have finally sucked me in, here is a video from one of my favorite TV shows of an actual cat wearing shoes. Please bless my decision to conform won't be so foolish...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fP4emqw7O4