things i miss when i'm down at school

don't get me wrong, i absolutely love being down at school, but i am so ready for thanksgiving break!! so here is my list of stuff i am looking forward to/miss when i'm not at home:

• sleeping on our couches with landon
• watching ace of cakes
• eating amazing food that my mom makes and i don't have to pay for
• driving a car
• reading in our front room (sometimes the only "quiet" place in the house)
• wrestling with my sisters/having hair pulling fights with kelsey
• joking around with my dad
• working on random craft projects
• walking my dog sydney... man i miss her
• helping make dinner or dessert with my mom
• talking about boys/life with my sisters really late at night
• laughing so hard and acting like such a dork that my siblings tell me how embarassing i am
• having free time to do nothing
• going running with brynn
• family home evening, family scripture study, and family prayer (i never realized how much i loved these when i lived at home... but not having it at school makes it that much more special to me)
• shopping with my sisters
• playing mario kart with landon
• watching random videos my dad loves
• sharing clothes with my sisters (i definately love this because my sisters dress so cute!!)
• dancing and singing to the radio with my sisters
• having my mom scratch my head... so relaxing...
• family meals where we sit and talk and laugh
• getting hugs from my family

i'm so glad i will be home next week and i hope i can do some of these things on my list! i'm in a very miss my family mood, but making this list just makes me smile. i'm so blessed to have the relationships i do with my family and i'm so thankful to have them in my life. i love you guys so much!

love always, karina

halloween

better late than never! :) halloween this year was so much fun! although we did more the night before than we actually did on Halloween :) my roommates and i had a few parties we wanted to go to on the 30th... haha i sound so popular right? we went to our stake dance and then to a party at our apartment complex. my roommate holly and i wanted to dress up together this year so we ended up having holly dress up as a cowgirl (which is perfect because her boyfriend scott is on a mission in texas) :) and i went as an indian! we found stuff for holly's costume at the d.i. and at walmart, and luckily i found some really cheap fabric to make my costume! i probably paid about ten dollars for my whole costume :) yay for cheapness!! i threw it all together one night with my Aunt Kerri's sewing machine (thank you so much kerri for helping me out!! i wouldn't have my costume without you!!) and it was so sweet of them to let me come over and hang out with their adorable family while i sewed :)

this halloween was one of the funnest (if that's a word) i've had!! we got a group of friends together and spent the night at the two different parties. we had a blast dancing and singing songs the whole night.

roommates!! :) kelsey on the left went as a superhero with world peace as her power :) holly in the middle as a cowgirl, and me on the right as an indian!! :) dressing up was so fun!

close-up of the cowgirl and indian :) and yes those are our dirty dishes in the sink haha :)

the purple teletubbie is our good friend jud. so many people loved his costume that night :) you can also see my full outfit in this picture :)

i mentioned the second party that we went to at our apartment complex... well it wasn't as fun as we thought it would be. we felt totally out of place because we were dressed modestly. but i must say that i am totally impressed with the guy friends that we have. many of them were uncomfortable being in that environment, so we all left and insteaded watched hocus pocus :) a very good alternative!!

halloween morning i got to go see my little sister Brynn run a half marathon! this is her second one and she is totally my hero!! my family and i had so much fun cheering her on :) it was also so nice to be with my family and they even took me out to lunch!

that night my roommates and i were all halloweened out, but we went to a small party and hung out with some friends that night. can't wait for next year's halloween!

love always, karina

this school year so far...

has been quite an adventure! so much has changed from freshman year this new school year that i can't believe it. i will try to fill you in on everything that has happened... starting out this year, my roommates Dani, Holly, Kelsey, and i lived in an apartment complex south of campus for the first couple of weeks. things were a little sketchy with management and we were released from our contracts... which is a good thing, but we had to find a new place to live in one day... extremely difficult in provo! but everything worked out :) we moved into a very nice apartment complex that day and a few days later i got a job that allows me to make enough money for rent! my roommates and i truly recognized how blessed we were in all of this and we are so thankful! the three of us work for our apartment complex- my job is to clean the workout room and the clubhouse- for 20 hours a month. i also got a job at the Spencer W. Kimball tower on campus working custodial in the afternoons, so i check bathrooms, change lights, take out recycling, that kind of stuff :)

so i wanted to post a few pictures from this year so you can actually see what i'm up to :)

this is me and my roommates holly and kelsey. we had a roommate photoshoot one night and this was definately my favorite picure of all that we took!

while my roommates and i were out grocery shopping one day, we saw Mario and Luigi on the side of the road! we had to stop and get a picture with them :)

Conference weekend my older sister alyssa and i got to go home to watch the sessions with our family :) this picture is right before my little brother landon and i took my dog sydney for a walk in the rain :)

my little sister brynn and her friend jaden came down for a weekend to experience "mini college" these girls crack me up and were so fun to have around! they had fun walking around campus, getting game day shirts, and hanging out, shopping, eating pizza and watching movies with me and my roommates :)

this picture is of holly and i when we went shopping at forever 21 with brynn and jaden :) we love trying on their hats :)

one weekend holly and i hiked to the "Y" :) we love this hike and we got up to the top right before sunset! holly and i sat on the Y, listened to some of our favorite songs on our ipods, and watched the sun go down... so gorgeous!!

yay for hiking!!

sitting on the Y and eating wheat thins :)

our shoes!!

amazing sunset!! i told you it was gorgeous!

the other weekend, holly and i went to the opera for an assignment in her humanities class, so we decided to get all dressed up and go out to eat before the opera! zupas is one of our favorite places to go out to! it's pretty cheap and you get chocolate strawberries with your meal!! :) mmm...

it was so fun to get all cute for a night out :)

we loved wearing heels with our jeans that night too :)

we love making faces :) can't be serious all the time!!

well that's a brief overview of what's been going on so far! i've already had a pretty fun school year and i can't wait for all of the other adventures i will have!! i will keep you updated!

love always, karina