Creole Wisdom

at home...

Coming home was so exciting.

During the layover in Chicago I ran into a high school friend, Rebecca. She's down at George Washington U and loves it. How cool to be in DC- not to self: visit DC sometime...

So the last flight (Chicago to Portland) was the most long, long, long agonizing plane ride EVER... The second the wheels hit the ground I called up Matt on my cell phone. He told me that he was about 10 minutes from the airport and would meet me in the baggage claim area (my flight came in about 20 minutes early, the boy is usually quite punctual).

I got off the plane and it was the funniest thing to walk throught the Portland terminal. If you haven't been it's not a huge airport, and was recenlty re-done so it looks brand new. Also, since my flight arrived late not many people were around.

My heart was beating so hard as I went down to get my bag. I waited and then Matt called again, he had just parked and wanted to know where I was. A few minutes later he tapped me on the shoulder and we hugged. It was so good to be back in his arms again.

Driving home I was just at a loss for words (which really isn't often). Looking out the window and driving past the Willamette River with the skyline shimmering on the water...

Walking into my bedroom for the first time in more than three months was something else. Everything was how I left it, for a few moments it felt like summer and that I never had the whole college life back in new york- weird.

Thanksgiving dinner was so fun. We did a joint dinner with Matt's family. I enjoyed sitting down and eating a real, homemade meal. I missed great food SO MUCH!

Then it was time to see my buddies. I only went to a few parties, but it was so refereshing to see everyone!

What a perfect break! I cannot wait to come back in December!

HOLD UP- I completely forgot the two best parts of break.

1) Matt said to me "you're the most important person in my life" awww

AND AND AND AND

2) He took my ctr ring so he could make sure to get the right size for my Christmas surprise... and I'm not supposed to know what it is... but it starts with a "promise" : )

almost home...

Tomorrow is the day... the long, long, long awaited day!

I'm finally going home to Portland!

Around my dorm room it's pretty quiet. My roomate left for vactaion to Europe on Friday. It's so weird to have my own room again.

One thing I just love so much about college is never being alone- always having someone to talk and laugh with. Seriously, so many *good times* with the girls...

Last night my suitmates, Arlene and I had the best talk. We went around talking about all these deep topics. Here's what was on our conversation menu: God, where we go when we die, religion, ghosts, past lives, the war, and civilizations... It could of turned into a yucky argument as two of us are conservative and the other two are quite liberal, but instead it was this great go around dialogue... loved it!

I don't know how I feel now about going home. Last week I was dying, counting down the days- so so so ready. Now I'm not sure. What if too much has changed? What if Matt is so different that I realize it won't work. I am dying to sleep in my own bed, take a walk in my neighborhood, visit with friends, go to church... The list goes on and on. What I'm really needing is chill time. I doubt I'll get much of that, but hopefully on my next break (which is an entire month... YESSS) I'll be able to really have some realaxtion time.

So when it's all said and done I'm ready to get on the plane tomorrow... even though it's a long long flight. I am ready.

way back wednesday!

Okay so keep in mind that I'm not on my laptop so I don't have all the grestest real *old* pictures of myself. I still have tons of scanning to do this year, but grated I've come a long way. Okay, so here it is...

So here I am as a baby... Not much to say except the shoes crack me up! They're so cute! One thing I love is that my parent's bronzed a pair very much like these. It's nice to see that some traditions, like bronzing baby shoes, aren't dead...
Gotta love Christmas time! Here I am, Holiday 1993 holding a huge present. What cracks me up is my cheesy grin and how all you can see sticking out from the bottom of the gift are my legs with little mary janes and white socks. Too funny. In the background you can see a red doll house and little table and chairs, both built by my dad. Sadly, (being the crazy creative kid I was) I ended up repainting and "renovating" (basically ruining) the dollhouse my dad had taken months to work out...

This is my 15th Birthday party. I just loved this time in my life. I had just move to Portland after spending an amazing summer in New York. Dad was still commuting there, only spending time at home on the weekends, but I loved my new school and had some great friends. I actuallly worked really hard and planned my entire party- we had kareoke, twister, movies, great pizza from pizzicato, TWO birthday cakes (a plain and ice cream one), and cute gift baskets to raffle off. Kind of a side note- so many fun high school parties were really heavily planned- we're talking themes and activities. I miss all the fun creativity that went into these things... someday I hope we'll do more parties like these... they were so fun!

Okay so this photo isn't from SO long ago (just over a year), but since the change between high school and college is so monumental I thought I'd include one form senior year. This is one of my senior pictures- I loved how they turned out. Soresonon Photography in Lake Oswego is one of the best places. They were so kind to me. I actually got to rep for them- in exhanged they gave me a bunch of free pictures : )

Well there ya go... enjoy!

-Katie

broke people in love...

You know it's funny how things just turn out...

I'd never of believed that Matt and I would be anything more than each other's prom dates...

Now look what happened!

So it's exactly one week until I see him, and I just cannot wait.

I wonder if he's changed, and I realize that he probably has- phone conversations and aim just don't do it justice...

Seeing his face after I get off the plane and head toward baggage claim will be so fun. I just cannot wait for that second when I spot him out of the crowd...

We just feel like... why wait? When you fall in love, you fall in love. Seperation is hard, but I know once I'm home I'll just feel all that all over again.

Matt told me he really wants to get me a promise ring, but he doesn't have any money right now. That might make someone else sad, but not me- it's not the actual jewlery (okay so who am I kidding, I'd so like to have a huge Tiffany's diamond set in white gold, but anyway....) it's what the ring means... And besides the point if he did have money I'd have something fly : )

I feel like someday (hopefully) we'll look back on these days in our lives and just laugh or even reminesce about what it was like to be young and not have lots of money.

Family Home Evening : )

So last night was my first family home evening... needless to say I was pretty siked up about it.

On sunday the Bishop's wife invited all the young, single adults (we have our own sunday school class) to come to her home- since most of us don't have our families right here it feels so nice to be invited and sort of be one of someone else's family for the night.

So my friend Marc, who is from Salt Lake and now works out in Manhattan offered to pick me up. He's a pretty cool guy, and I love talking to him about the church and asking him tons of questions about what it's like to live in Utah.

The Bishop's house was gorgeous. I love Scarsdale, I've never seen such beautiful, old homes until I came here!

The Bishop's wife taught the lesson, it was on the Prophet Joseph Smith. We started with a hymn and ended with some great refreshments.

After I came home around 10 and ended up chatting with Arlene for about two hours. She is just the greatest.

I realize now how much happier I am going to church. I feel more balanced and more spiritually fed. It's like I'm fufilled.

silly blog stuff...

2 names you go by
Katie
Kate

2 parts of your heritage
Creole
German

2 things that scare you
Being single for a long time
Not being able to have children

2 of your everyday essentials
Hot tea!
Burt's bees' lipbalm

2 things you are wearing right now
Kenneth Cole pink leather wrist watch
Diamond necklace Matt gave to me in July : )

2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment)
John Legend
Etta James

2 favorite songs (at the moment)
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" -The Beach Boys
"Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" -John Legend

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love)
Devotion
Proximity ('nuff said!)

2 truths
I smile a lot
I love baking

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex)
Nice arms
Traditional manners

2 of your favorite hobbies
Scrapbooking
Reading

2 things you want really badly
Diamond stud earings
Corduroy skirt

2 places you want to go on vacation
Pensacola with my family
Hawaii with my friends

2 things you want to do before you die
Do my geneology
Restore a beautiful, old home

2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick
I want to get married, have kids, and stay at home
I love pink!

2 things you are thinking about now
How I missed an important appointement and how disgusted I am with myself about that...
Going home soon

2 stores you shop at
Blue Tulip (stationary store)
Gap

2 people I would like to see take this quiz
Katherine
Shannon

Just thinking...

Of Veteran's day tommorow.

I had a great Grandpa who served proudly in WWII and became a Sargeant First Class.

He passed away this January, and I miss him so much. We were very close. On some national holidays we'd fly down to Pensacola to visit, but since that wasn't always possible I'd make sure to call him or at least write a letter- always making sure to tuck a picture inside.

I wish I'd spent more time talking to him, and listening to all the great stories from his life.

Here's a picture of him- he's on the left, back in his MP (Military Police) days...

hello out there...

I was snooping around my typepad account and found this-

Total number of page views: 15086
Average per day: 126.77
Last 7 days: 1215
Today since midnight GMT: 202

Which got me thinking... how many of you lurk, but never comment?

What I love so much about this blogging world is it's a great way to stay in touch with some of the really cool ladies I've met on 2peas!

But since I usually get only one or two comments, but on average (see above) 126.77 views a days that means some of you aren't stopping in to say hello!

Feel free to drop a line today- we can call this the official out of lurkedome entry!

: )

back at church...

Yesterday was my first time worshiping at LDS ward since I was home.

Overal it was an amazing experience.

A nice couple picked me up around 9 (church is so early here... back home it was at 1- I was so spoiled)

The wife and I talked, she's just a few years older than me and knows exactly what it's like to go to a school like Sarah Lawrence. She attended Bard, another New York school that happens to be very very liberal and also extremly anti-God. It was so nice to find someone who had delt with similar struggles! So resfreshing that I wasn't alone in going through this all...

First Westchester Ward is in a beautiful, beautiful area... Scardsdale, New York. Just the drive there itself was phenomenal... foliage is out of this world. So amazing. So pretty.

I was excited to be back "home" in church again. That's how it feels to me, like home, like I belong- with all my imperfections- it's a safe place where I can worship. Just that is so important to me.

Since it was testimony sunday I got to listen to many of the member's speak during scrament meeting.

Another thing that was really exciting for me was the diversity. There were several black families and boys passing the sacrament.

During sunday school we talked about revelation. Probably one thing that stuck out in my mind the most was the priesthood being extended to ALL men. We actually watched a video on this very revelation, and it was pretty amazing. I'd like to learn more about what President Kimball did during his time.

It was also my first time attending Relief Society... no more YM. We talked about actual sisterhood and what we can do to be better "sisters" to one another... Great talk.

I'm also really excited because this Thursday is enrichement night. I've never been to one of these- if you're reading this and you're LDS can you tell me some of the fun things you've done on these nights? All I know is that we're going to be talking about holiday entertaining and making those cookie jars (you know dry ingredients inside...)

The only let down was that there was a single's fireside and I SO missed it because I had to babysit.

Had a great time. I still don't know if I want to get baptized (that's another thread in itself!) but I was so touched- it felt so good to be back in church again!

I love family ward, and maybe I'll venture down to Manhattan for singles ward, but for now I'm really happy!