Finals Blessings

This week was finals.  I could complain about how stressful it was and whatnot, but in a shocking twist these last three weeks have been some super great weeks. I've never felt so overwhelmingly content for this long before! Everyone has been nice to me and I've been getting some great blessings! It's awesome.

The most recent blessing was just this afternoon! I needed to take my Family Finance final before tomorrow and I didn't have to work at all today.  So I got to the library around 7:30 and I only left to go to lunch and to run an errand to my job.  But all my studying did not seem to yielding many results.  As the time crept closer and closer to when I wanted to take my test, I got a little more testy.  I finally realized that I wan't getting it. For some reason mutual funds and bonds just weren't clicking.  Ty left to take his final and he said he'd pray for me. Which got me thinking about prayer, so in desperation I threw up a prayer, more like a plea for help.  You know those humble, last-ditch-effort kind, where you just say  -- I can't do this on my own, please help.

Well let me tell you ladies and gents, that prayer (or rather those prayers) made all the difference. I calmed down a bit, and things suddenly started clicking a little more.  Right before I left the library, I decided to look over one last powerpoint slide.  It had some formulas that I hadn't covered yet, but I felt like they were important.  So I spent an extra 10 minutes memorizing them enough to be able to write them down as soon as I got into the JSB.  So I went in, wrote down my formula's and got started.  I ended up using the majority of the formulas I had quickly memorized. (BLESSING.)

Later on, I was working on this after tax, after inflation interest problem.  As I was doing the practice tests earlier in the day,  this was the type of problem that tripped me up the most! It was just so strange to me, but on the test I was able to breeze right through it! The thought came to me: "my strengths are my weaknesses." (Ether 12 anyone?)

Let me tell you as the test went on my pleas were quickly changed into gratitude! I felt like I was so helped on that test -- it was amazing.  This is why I'm so glad I'm a member of the Church! I know where to to turn to when my mind isn't working, and I know who to thank when things work out so well!

So.. there it is guys.  For the moment life is great! My finals are done. I have the best friends. My family is great. I'm going home for three whole weeks. And I'm very blessed!!!!

Welcome to Williamsburg (Brooklyn)

Pop-Culture Fact of the Day: Williamsburg Brooklyn is known for being a hub of indie rock, hipster culture, and local art community.  We channeled a little bit of that hipsterism for Stacey's most birthday party.  (Remember the video invite I shared a few posts back? -- This was the blessed event we were inviting everyone to!)

Stacey and I were at a total loss as to what to do for her fantastic 22nd birthday! The original idea was so go to a bar--a real bar--and do some karaoking.  After visiting the 'family friendly' cafe attached to the bar and getting (possibly) leered at by oldish men, we scrapped that idea and came up with a far superior one! A party based on Taylor Swift's song 22 -- which involved dressing up like hipsters and having breakfast at midnight. 

This was a little hard for the party-goers, because being a hipster is kind of ambiguous. I'm still not even sure if there is one solid way to describe it -- but we all did our best and I believe we did the hipster community proud!

Happy Hipster and Full Body Hipster Shot!

Full on Hipster Stacey

We had a great turn-out for a party starting at mid-night in the middle of a the first snow-storm.  I'm very impressed by the dedication people have to hipster parties!  We all crowded around the entrance being stared at by people that just don't get the hipster appeal until they called for "the Kelli Party" -- what an ego boost --I put the reservation in my name and so they kept calling it "the Kelli Party" -- so fun!

Here's pictures of our super-hip guests:

Some of the Group

Roommates and Boyfriend -- doing their hipster pose!

Cute Hipsters!

My table of super legit hipsters! 

My neighbors to the north being all hip! 

These are some of my favorite ladies!!!!!!

Hipsters getting punched in the face!!

The best part of the night was getting to celebrate Stacey!!! She's been such a wonderful roommate for the past 3 years and I don't know what life will be like without her constant encouragement and enthusiasm! She's definitely as weird as I am and I love that I get to be myself so easily around her! You would all be so lucky to have a roommate like this girl -- she's as fun as she is pretty!!!!

So quick summary: cool birthday girl + cool clothes + cool invite = PARTY SUCCESS!

I've Got Some Super Cool Friends

Remember in August when I was feeling so old because on of my besties got married? Well.. a month and four days ago another one of these besties got married as well! Today happens to be her birthday so she gets this whole post to celebrate herself and her awesome life and adventures!

Isn't she great?!

Alexa is my adventurous friend.  In high school, she decided ON THE DAY OF AUDITIONS to try out for a part in the school's musical.  No preparation. Just a desire to try something new. She did it and she did get a great part -- sausage curl girl or something -- her solo was "Never Part of Any Crowd!"(I think?) I've always thought about how amazing that was; it's something that I wouldn't have been able to do then or now.  Maybe someday.. My adventures never involve the potential for so much personal humiliation, and I've always super admired that Alexa is so unafraid in that aspect.

Alexa is also the oldest of the Fab Four (we didn't name ourselves-- our tennis coach did).  This meant that she was our only driver for awhile in high school.  Which meant we got to drive around in this thing:

This 'thing' was called the BEAST

IT WAS A BLAST! We'd go to lunch together everyday freshman year of high school. One day a week we'd go to Lexa's.  It was chimichangas and sandwiches and other frozen delicacies and chocolate covered raisins.  The BEST PART was driving back to school. Lexa would sometimes let me drive. I'd try to back out of her long drive-way (and end up on the grass once or twice -- sorry Kienlen's!).  Then we'd drive over all these dips in the road, bumping up and down the whole way -- and I mean BUMPING. If we were feeling really great -- I'd try to parallel park this thing WITH NO POWER STEERING (edited to add) or what felt like no power steering. :)  I remember lots of laughing on these trips.

Alexa is also one of my good example friends.  Case in point: She got married in the temple to a wonderful person! And didn't she look lovely doing so:

Aren't they cute?

The Girls!

Other things Alexa is:

She's kind and sweet!

She's got the best laugh!

Alexa in a Picture!

She thinks all my misadventures are so funny -- and helps me see the humor in it.

She listens to me and responds with great things.

She decides what she wants and goes after it.

Girl's Camp to Graduation to Now!

She's a wonderful person and I'm lucky enough to still be her friend after all these years. :)

Disclaimer: I stole many of these pictures from Facebook and one from Darcee's Wedding slideshow! So.. you've probably seen them before! 

I'm proud of this and I feel like showing it off...

I've acknowledged the reason for this post. I'm being boastful. Forgive me and then...enjoy.

Flash Flood of Memories

Hey guys! Did you like my mom's post? Isn't she cool and witty? I get all my coolness from my mom and my dad for sure!

Anyway... as you're aware Hurricane Sandy is hitting the East Coast hard. Several places have been evacuated -- including my sister's old stomping grounds.. if I remember correctly.. Battery Park City.  You probably don't remember, actually I'm almost guaranteeing you don't remember, but during the summer of 2010 my mom and I flew out to NYC (my first plane ride ever!) and spent a week in the life of my sister.  As I've been thinking about New York with the recent storms, I pulled up my pictures from the trip and I realized that I felt like sharing some of the greatness of that trip with you -- how lucky you are!

My sister Dawn knows how to plan a weekend, so we did lots of fun things.  Because we are women (according to my dad), we love to eat the good foods in life... so we also ate a lot of good things.  Below are pictures, stories, and a video as I recollect them!

What New York Doesn't Look Like Right Now...

 Let me begin by saying that probably one of the biggest reasons why a person would decide to never show pictures of their trip to New York is that you look down-right nasty on the trip.  You may not believe here at the beginning of the post, but as I continue you'll see.. Maybe just maybe New York should rip off Las Vegas's motto and make it their own because seriously.... humidity kills a good photo!

Super Fun Event One: 

Top of the Rock! This was one pretty fun! We didn't do the traditional Empire State building, but we did get just as high with a great view still!  It was actually super fun to look through the binoculars and wave to the people on the Empire State building -- what a great sense of community I felt!

Dawn and Mom -- Top of the Rock and looking hot!

Dawn, Alfalfa Kelli, Mom!

Crazy about Binoculars!

Dawn's enthused!

So much to see!

Good Eats Number One:

Max Brenner.. I can't remember what about this place made it so high-class, but it was a little too high classy for us! So we opted for the most amazingly cute and delicious desserts ever. Seriously.. give this place a try!

Super Fun Event Two:

   Wicked!!! I had heard the sound track a lot so I was so excited for the real thing.  Turns out the cast changed and with it so did the voices.  We also had the understudy Elphaba.  While it was a little different.... It was so amazing! I do not know how Elphaba could have been better than she was, so that star must be off the wall!

This picture is blurry because we were so excited about just seeing Wicked!

Super Fun Event Number Three:

Time Square. This picture was taken post Wicked really late at night with no flash!! It's so bright there it's crazy! You can't see it, but we had just finished eating McDonalds on the Red Stairs(Steps?) -- my treat! I was so generous! ;)

Good Eat Number Two:
   Dawn, an experienced New Yorker -- really new what was up.  She took us to this great little place called S'MAC.  The only thing they serve there is different varieties of insane Macaroni and Cheese! I was still a picky eater in those days, so I kept it tame with an pretty plain thing, but it was amazing!

S'MAC your face with greatness!

Super Fun Event Number Four:

On Sunday we did some things that didn't cost money, like walking the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a long walk and it was sort of raining and of course it was humid.  So the walk was fun, but I look sort of on the gross side.

NEW YORK!

Loving the Walk.. Can't you tell?

Super CRAZY THING:
Dawn and Bryan worked in the tallest building in the background -- that part is New Jersey.   This morning I saw a lady reporting from this exact spot -- so I guess the Esplanade is still in tact!

Aren't they sweet?

 Super Great Food Number Three:
We also got pie at Rocco's! So delicious.  BUT SO RICH! We couldn't even finish it all, so we took it to go in these cute little white boxes.  To let our dessert settle, we walked to Washington Square Park, and with our cute little white boxes clutched in our hands.  We walk into the park and right near the entrance (it was late at night too) these men call out: "They say good things come in small packages." -- IN SUPER CREEPY WAY. Not in like a I'm from Wyoming and not used to this situation creepy, but more in that was weird and gross sort of way.  Needless to say we walked quickly into a different direction.

Super Fun Event Number Five:

Central Park Is HUGE! It's so massive, but so pretty and awesome.  But when you're tired from a long walk, the beauty starts to dissipate a little. So we were walking down another huge path and then we see this dog in the distance. I say to my friends (mom and Dawn) -- if that's a Balto statue I'm going to freak out. It was and I did.

Balto and me!

Super Good Eats Number Four:

   Some cute brunch place in Manhattan. I don't remember much about it, except that Dawn lost her camera and then found it there.  And that doing brunch is very New York and very fun! 

Super Fun Event Number Six:

  The picture below could speak for itself.. BUT I have to make a comment.  We were going along .. not any rain in sight.. yet.. I was getting so wet -- not from the wild waves.. instead it was from the nasty humidity.  I said it then and I'll say it again... It seriously felt like we were taking a shower a little at a time.

The Statue of Liberty.

 Super Good Eats Number Five:
Authentic Italian in Little Italy. It's totes amazo. Be jealous.

THE LAST DAY:

   Here's my picture of eating a big apple in the Big Apple.  I think it's pretty symbolic: I came, I saw, I conquered. And I want to go back.

My sweet hostess sister: She's great!! 

IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR YOU GET A BONUS VIDEO. Three words: Dirty Water Dogs. Jealous?

So there's the recap.  I hope that New York is able to recover quickly from Frankenstorm so that it can continue to be the wonderful metropolis that I enjoyed two years ago! 

Guest Post: Gone But Not Forgotten

Hey Folks! Kelli here -- there was a big event in our family recently, and so I got my mom to write about it! Isn't she great? Anyhow.. here's what she's got to say:

I am very excited and yet extremely humbled by Kelli’s invitation to post on her blog.  I do not have a blog myself, so all of a sudden I feel that my life has meaning and that it is worth living.  I am happy to accommodate Kelli’s request.

Gone But Not Forgotten—

I thought I would blog about a little bit of Lewis family history.

What this car probably looked like in 1982!

                When Scott, Kelli’s dad, returned from his mission in July 1982, one of the first things he did was purchase a brand new car.  He was headed to Provo in the fall to resume his studies at BYU and was going to need the wheels to get there and to get around once he was there.  He and his parents went to Billings car shopping at an event called Car Wars, (two dealers vying for your business) and when it was all over, Scott was the proud owner of a 1982 Chevrolet Chevette.  He paid $4400.  Wow, how times have changed!  Scott adorned his car with his home state license plates, 9er plates even.  This was before 9er drivers had earned themselves the reputation of being bad drivers. 

Authentic '9er' Plates

Scott and I started dating in March 1983 and that is when I was introduced to the Chevette.   I didn’t have a car at school, so once we were in engaged this car became our car, and I drove it when I needed to get my hair cut, shop for my wedding dress, or run other errands.  It had a standard transmission but that was okay because I had learned how to drive in my brother’s pick up.

The  Chevette ties to our family’s history because of the significant events that took place with this car.  On January 10^th, 1984 Scott officially proposed to me in this car.  We had already decided that we were going to get married and had shopped for and bought the ring, but it was not yet on my finger.    When he came to pick me up that night, after we had gotten in the car, he reached into the back seat and brought to the front a beautiful red rose.  It was embellished with greenery and baby’s breath and was wrapped in green tissue paper.  I noticed almost immediately that my ring was there at the base of the rose.  He had taken the ring and slipped it up the stem of the rose and it glittered beautifully in the light.  We were officially engaged.

For the first two summers of our marriage we lived in Cowley.  The Chevette was our U-haul  in our moves to and from Provo.  If we couldn’t fit it in, we didn’t take it.  This was true even when we had Toni and were packing a crib around.  We were pretty much minimalists during our years in college. I suppose most important is that this car brought home from the hospital our first three children.  When Ty, our third, was not quite two, we purchased our first mini-van and the Chevette became our second car, driven mostly by Scott from that point on.  He would take it deer hunting—yes, this little hatchback has hauled around a few dead deer in its time.

The car has been in a few scrapes in its 30 year history.  The first one was in the parking lot of the West Bank  Hotel in Idaho Falls.  It was the day after we were married and we were getting ready to leave on our honeymoon trip.  We noticed someone had swiped us and left some damage.  No note and no offer to pay for the damage.  The second was in the parking lot of Wymount Terrace at BYU married student housing.  This time there was a note and an offer to pay for the damage, and he indeed did pay for it to be fixed.  The third  time was when it was parked in front of our house when we lived in Riverton.  No note and no offer to pay.  We fixed each scrape and tried to keep it nice.  Eventually the hatchback hinge stopped working and when I went grocery shopping, I had to prop it open with a stick.

I can’t forget the pepper spray incident.  Scott had purchased a can of pepper spray when he went on an overnight hike with the scouts into bear country.  Somehow the can did not get unloaded from the car with the rest of his stuff.  On a hot afternoon in August the can exploded and splashed pepper spray all over the interior.  It was terrible.  It was a long time before we could ride in that car without our eyes watering and our fingertips burning. 

Where it's been since 2006

We put a lot of miles on this car before we bought the van.  There were countless trips from Riverton to Cowley and to Idaho to see my family.  Scott maintained it and would fix it when it would break down.   It was definitely showing its age when it broke down in the latter part of 2006.  It was the clutch and this was one thing Scott did not know how to fix, but he was determined to learn how.  We pulled it in the garage and there is sat for a really long time.  He was always going to get to it but never found the time.  It sat in the garage during the winters when our other cars would sit out in the cold.  After it sat there for several years I started to look at other options, like selling it or just junking it.  Scott didn’t really want to talk about those options.  Obviously he was attached to his first car and still had every intention of fixing it, but reality started to set in with him and he knew he needed to do something.  The most appealing option was junking it.  He wouldn’t have to put any money into it by fixing it, and he could get salvage cost out of it.  So after months of agonizing and mentally adjusting he agreed it could go.  We secured a car hauler trailer and loaded it up and we were off to Billings. 

These pictures document the last few days of our family’s first mode of transportation the vehicle that was part of our family for 30 years.   

                 

Chevette Hearse

All Loaded Up

Ready to Die.

Right before they crushed it!

A Hopeless Romantic No More, but Still as Ditzy as Ever.

Taylor Swift's new album, Red, came out this morning at midnight.  I woke up an hour later than last time she released an album -- not at 4:30 like last time. But the reason I woke up had less to do with Taylor, instead I was finishing homework, with Taylor serenading me in the background.

I wasn't as excited for Taylor's album this go around for one main-ish reasons:

A Hopeless Romantic No More. So... I read a lot.  I love it.  The bad part is when people ask me what I like to read.  I try to own it as much as possible, but still there's a hint of shame in my face when I saw -- cutesy-love-stories, usually with some kind of self-actualization vibe at some point.  But in recent months, I've been developing this whole new perspective on how this isn't real.  No REAL person is EVER like the person in the books I read or the movies I watch or unfortunately the music I listen to.  So then I listen to Taylor tell these fantastic stories with such awesome music in the background, and I get annoyed at how fake it is or sad at how that's never going to happen ever, and then the music has the opposite effect that's it's supposed to.

So maybe... I've outgrown some of my hopeless romantic tendencies for now, but at the same time I have this overwhelming need to get a boyfriend and break-up with him, so I can nurse my broken self back to health on a steady diet of Taylor break-up songs and chocolate chip cookies (with milk so I don't get osteoporosis).   HER BREAK-UP/I-MISS-WHAT-WE-HAD SONGS ARE THAT GOOD. I'm serious. They are the best.  I particularly like: All To Well.

So.. here is a link to All To Well as well as a playlist with her entire album on it (do it quick or the Youtube copyright police will take it down.)

Now to the part where I'm Still as Ditzy as Ever.

Last night I was at Ward Prayer: an event made by Single's Ward Bishops desperate to get us all married off a delightful social event for the ward to bond outside of Church, and I struck up a conversation with some random guys in my ward (rare occurrence -- ward Prayers are just awkward if you haven't already made friends before the blessed event). We were having a pleasant conversation, but I was on my way back to my apartment to watch the last part of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. As I was exiting the conversation, a guy right next to me engaged me in conversation, so I was backed into a corner (literally: my back was right in the crook were two walls were meeting) by my man-friends.  Then they started talking politics.

Not like.. "Yeah I like his social issues, but his tax plan is not my favorite."  It was like "I don't think I agree with how Obama dealt with Libya the first time, but I don't think Romney would have done anything different than Obama the second time."  Then started the in-depth discussion on his tax plan, and how it would affect each group of people.  Then there was the part about drones vs. foot soldiers. My part of the discussion was like:

Boy: "So Kelli what do you think?"
Me: "I don't think I know enough to say anything, but I'm enjoying listening."

How scintillating. Amazed by my wit?  Encouraged by how well informed I am as the future of America? Me too.

NOT!

Yup. I was pretty embarrassed for myself as well.  So I came home, after easing my way out of the corner, and decided to get 'informed.'  Only to be discouraged again.  Do you know how long it takes to become informed? I would have pages and pages of reading to become informed. What's a girl to do?

If only they had asked be about Taylor Swift's new album.  Or even if they had asked me about Therapeutic Recreation.  Or maybe on discrimination in America. Or my opinion on TOMS shoes (ask me about it -- it's juicy!).  Or anything remotely pop-culture or somewhat in my area of interest.  But alas, they did not, so I'm just left regretting how ill-prepared I am to be a contributing member of society.

I'm very open to suggestions on the best ways to become informed quickly.  In fact, I'd be more then open to them -- I'm begging! HELP A SISTER OUT! (I'm also interested in your opinions on Red. In fact, let's be honest, I'd be more interested in that than becoming informed!)

p.s. GET EXCITED -- My mom is going to be doing a blog-post on Friday... It's going to be awesome.  Tell your friends!