Photo Shoot

If you haven't noticed I don't exactly have self-esteem boiling over in me...but every now and then I actually like the way I look, usually when I have put in the time and effort to actually do my hair and make-up [: Tonight was the first time in quite a while so I took pictures and had fun editing them. They are over-the-top and cheesy and I look pretty 80's...

But everybody needs to feel pretty sometimes.

The State of the {Me} Address

It's been a while.
Well that just got a song in my head....Let me break the ice....

Anyways, I feel like I have a lot to tell, I mean my life isn't that interesting but I've got like 6 months worth of stuff to write about so I might as well. The last time I really wrote I told you all about my plans...

Bon Jovi was absolutely awesome. Completely and utterly perfect. I fell in love with him all over again. And to think it all started with a CD my older sister left behind for me to find. Thanks Ang!

What happened next...hmm...
Oh Spring Break....which will get it's own post. Probably. With pictures. Hopefully.

ALASKA. Oh how I love Skagway. I got there at the end of April, got snowed in in Juneau for a night and took the ferry to Skagway in the morning. It was choppy and the waves crashed up over the boat. I love the ferry! I mean I love the ocean and the scenery and the ferry is perfect for enjoying that. Life at the Kone House was great, we all got along really well (almost always) we made it through a tragedy or 2 and really became a family fast. Most of the time it was 6 or 7 girls to 1 or 2 boys in the house. Definitely a different atmosphere than last year. I loved my roomies! More on them later...maybe...

Mom and Dad came to visit this year! I loved sharing everything I loved about Skagway with them. I wish everybody had the chance to go. It rained most of the time they were there, so it was an authentic experience [:

My last Sunday in Skagway was a fast and testimony meeting. We had had some stuff go down at the house that week that had made it back to the Branch Pres. (small, small town plus he is also the boss at RadioShack where half of us worked so ya) and when he bore his testimony he talked about how some people in the branch were struggling and how sad that made him, he was almost in tears and you could just feel how much he cared about all of us and wanted us to be happy and good. I, as you know, am a crier and it was too much for me. I wept like a baby. And then the rest of the testimonies were all about how they were headed home and such and I just kept crying and crying. I'm sure I had no mascara left by the third speaker. I had 3 roomies with me that day: Elle, Erika, and Austin. Austin had to leave in the middle of Sacrament meeting to go to work. He sent us each a text while he was walking to work and while we were waiting for Sunday School to start Erika handed me her phone so I could read it. We had just gotten me to stop crying and laugh instead but once I started reading the text the tears started all over again. I saved that text, I read every now and then when I need to feel better. I guess I'll share it here:

Dear Chrissi, Elle, and Erika

I just wanted to say I love the three of you

very, very much and that I look up to the three

of you as well. You all come from different 

walks of life, but you all three have something 

in common. And that's that you know our Father

in Heaven is real, and our brother Jesus Christ

bled and died for our sins. I look up to the three

of you for never letting go of that fact even though 

your trials are so hard! You are the strongest girls

that I have ever had the opportunity of meeting

and I am extremely grateful for that. Thank you

for lifting me up and always making me want to

do better! Thank you for keeping me safe.

Love, your new little brother

Austin [:

Now who wouldn't cry having read that from their little brother? He is going to be an awesome missionary. I can't wait to go to his Farewell this weekend. Anyways Erika had to go find me some tissues cause I was flooding again. It was really hard to leave this time.

I got home in time for the Family Swim party at Gordons' (barely more flight troubles) I love that party. In the next week I got to do a lot of hanging out with Kim and the kids and Ashley. I missed them tons. Luckily Kirk did not forget my name [: 

Then life got a little stressful. I had everything planned out: I came back in time for fall semester so I could finish my associates real quick (just 3 classes left!) and then I'd be free to go back to Skagway in March (they asked me too) and I was really, really excited. It was perfect. Then I could get in a lot of money-making and go to USU the next fall. Well that all fell apart. I couldn't get into my classes, ended up having to pay $600 dollars for the online class I had taken over the summer and wasn't going to get free tuition anymore. So. Fall semester turned into just working at the Malt Shop. And I will be taking those classes in Spring, which means no Skagway in March. Possibly no Skagway at all. Ugh. School. Ugh.

So as of now, I flip burgers and in my spare time hang out with Kim and the kids a lot (which I love) and occasionally see Ash, (she has a boyfriend and works 2 jobs so that's not often). So I'm trying to finish one of the 7 novels I have started writing in the past few years...oh and I am getting carpel-tunnel from work (pathetic I know) and it hurts like the dickens sometimes so that kind of puts a damper on writing and also the painting I'm trying to do.

Oh and I donated my hair. So its short now.

So I guess the 'State of Me' is I'm not really doing anything. Ever. So if you need a babysitter....

I'm here.