On the Brightside...

Awhile ago I was reading through my journal I kept in high school, and I couldn't help but be really impressed with myself. My family and I moved from Hesperia, California to Kaysville, Utah before my junior year of high school. SO HARD. But as I would write in my journal each week I would remain positive. I might have mentioned how one week was especially hard or disappointing, but I would always end by saying, "I hope this next week is better!" or "maybe I should work harder on this" or "but I'm really thankful for this"

I never mentioned in my journal the days I sat alone in my car, or the library, or the hall with nowhere to go during lunchtime, the days I don't think I said a word at school, the times where group projects were assigned and I was always by myself, or the nights I couldn't do anything but cry. With the number of times I had these experiences, that would be a very depressing journal to read.

I found ways to keep myself busy and happy during those two rough years of high school, I had to keep going. I mentioned a lot in my journal the craft projects I worked on, walking my dog around the neighborhood, the time I spent with my family, and the people in my life who were sweet to me. There was always something to be thankful for to keep me positive and happy.

Four years ago today my family and I moved here to Kaysville. There has been countless times since that day that I have recognized what a blessing moving has been in my life. I'm am SO thankful for this trial in my life as I recognize the lessons I have learned, the strong relationships I have formed with my family members, and strong person I am today. The Lord knew what he was doing when he sent our family to Kaysville, and I am thankful for his hand in my life :)

Best Shopping Trip of My Life

... so far :) last night my little sister and I went shopping at Rue 21. I still have birthday money I've been needing to spend so I was hoping to find some cute clothes, little did I know I would have such good luck!! The store was having a HUGE sale and I found such great stuff that I absolutely love!!

shoes: $10
shirt: $6
shirt: $6
shirt: $3 scarf: $6

shirt: $3 (and the same scarf from the picture above)

getting good deals: priceless

(betcha didn't see that one coming) haha

I also got some gray leggings for running for $5, but I used them already so I didn't take a picture :)

I LOVE saving money!! There's something just so exciting about getting things you want for such a small price! Usually when I go shopping I come back empty-handed. I'm very good at talking myself out of things that I want if they are too expensive. It's hardly ever worth it to pay full price, and I can be patient and wait for them to go on sale. Plus, I am SO happy when my patience finally pays off :) I got such great stuff for so cheap!!

Yes there are some times when I'm too cheap for my own good and I miss out on some cool stuff. But there's always something better out there, maybe even cheaper! So there's no reason to get discouraged :)

Woah, I think that just turned into a metaphor for my life. Sometimes I feel like there are things I've missed out on in life, yet I'm thankful I have not been willing to settle. There are some things are just worth waiting for :) and here I was thinking I was just bragging about my good shopping trip! haha

what i've been up to lately...

I LOVE BEING HOME!!! I love this time in between school and summer work. My job really doesn't pick up until school gets out so I have a lot of free time to spend reading, shopping with my mom, cleaning, organizing, doing crafts, seeing friends... all of the stuff i love!! :) I like keeping myself busy, so I've had a lot of fun here at home so far.

The first night I was home my family and I went to the Kaysville Theater to watch The Lightning Thief! I really liked the movie and started reading the series, I'm on the third book now :) It was so crazy that night to not have to worry about when I needed to drive back to Provo, or what was due that week. It felt awesome :)

Such good books! I love Greek mythology!!

The first Sunday I was home my siblings and I fingerpainted, and of course we painted our faces too :) I have NO makeup on in this picture because my allergies were terrible. Earlier that day I couldn't even open my eyes :(

And I'm taking advantage of the chances I get to eat breakfast in the morning. :) oh yes :)

I even made these baby shower invitations for a lady in our ward who just adopted the sweetest little baby :) Today I actually went with this mom and her little girl to my aunt's house in Heber so she could take pictures of this adorable baby!! She's the sweetest little thing!!

Sadly, I also tend to get a little bored when work is slow... I'm used to ALWAYS having something that needs to get done, or people to hang out with. So lately when I'm bored I go for a bike ride on a pretty bike path we have by our house :) This picture is actually from tonight when after Landon and I got back from a bike ride. He's my buddy :)

There's actually a lot that I've done since I've been home that I didn't even tell you about! It's crazy that I've been home now for just over two weeks... well, more will come later!!

love always, karina

Preschool Experiences

This last semester of school I had the opportunity to take a class in the BYU preschool. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have been a part of the preschool. I learned much more than I could possibly explain, but I will try :)

Let me explain how the preschool was set up. We teachers would get there about an hour before the kids arrived. We would spend about a half hour discussing what was happening that day, who was in charge of what, and what to look for that day. Then the rest of the time we spent setting up our centers and activities for the kids.

When the kids arrived we had center time for about forty five minutes. The kids could pick any of the activites that we had avaliable for them or they could play on the computers or listen to books on tape. Some of the centers I was a part of were block building, fishing for magnet numbers and letters, the doctors office at the dramatic play area, and my own cutting centers (which I will explain later)

To transition from center time to a large group activity we cleaned up our activities and then moved to the carpet to sing and dance to some of their favorite songs. These songs were often very embarassing (especially when you know there are other college students watching you in the booth haha) but doing these dances and crazy moves helped me to loosen up and get rid of some of my inhibition :) I really have noticed how much inhibition I have given up because of being in the preschool. Acting like a dork in front of people does not scare me as much now :)

For large group time on the carpet, the teacher would read a story and then we would carry out an activity that related to the story in some way. We called this an interactive lit. One day I was in charge of this interactive lit. I brought in one of my favorite books from when I was a kid called Never Mail an Elephant. After reading the story to the class, I talked to them about addresses, and letters and other things related to mail. Then I had the children fill in letters, kinda like a mad lib, and we sent their letters home in the mail.

Recess was always after the large group activity, and the kids loved running outside and getting out some of their energy. Snack was always after recess and those kids eat good! haha

To wind down the day we read books at the carpet until their parents arrived. It was so sweet to see them with their parents. They would run up to them and give them the biggest hugs and just hold on while they told them about their day at preschool :) it was seriously the sweetest thing :)

After all the children had left, as teachers we would meet again to discuss the day. With the kids we were always assessing each kids letter and number recognition and we would keep track of that information in the assessment book. With that we would talk about how the activities went to give the other teachers feedback. We also shared cute and funny stories of our experiences with the kids :)

ok now for some of my favorite pictures with the kids :)

This was during my first week with the kids. We were sorting all of our shoes according to different characteristics.

The kids were learning a lot about doctors because many of them were getting their kindergarten shots. Yes I'm on the X-ray machine that we built. I loved getting down and playing with the kids. Here my doctors are telling me all about my "broken foot" :)

For this activity the kids were pretending they had chicken pox. They had to wear gloves so they wouldn't scratch themselves and then had to try and pick up little toys without their hands.

This is the whole class sitting at the carpet during a large group activity. This day we had a nurse come in to tell the class about the tools she uses while all of the little kids drew pictures to take notes :)

This was one of the centers I planned. For two weeks I worked on cutting activities with the kids to improve their cutting skills. This day the kids were cutting out jewels and crowns for them to wear. Other days we cute out flowers out of paper plates, snake mobils, and shapes to make their own mosaics.

I love what's going on in this picture. We were making a zoo out of blocks and our animal toys, but the little boy and I are talking about the letters he's recognizing on the wall. :)

These are just some of the cool experiences I was a part of at the preschool:

• I helped some girls that were being bossed around by another girl to stand up for themselves and use what we called their "big girl voices" to handle their bully problem.
• One kid who always played alone or on the computers during center time began to share his toys and play with other kids in the preschool which he had never done before.
• I helped a little boy get over his fear of riding the tricycles after he had a scary experience with a bike at home. This same kid taught another little girl who was scared of the tricycles to get over her fear and try riding.

These may seem like little things, but in this time of a child's life, these experiences are huge!

I feel so blessed for the chance I had to be apart of these growing experiences. These experiences help these small kids to be a little more self-reliant. We teachers are only with them for so long, but the lessons we teach rather academic or life lessons, will stay with them and will bless their lives.

I loved seeing these children grow and learn in just the seven short weeks I was with them. These children were learning not only letter and number recognition, but they were learning life skills that will help them in the rest of their schooling. We taught children how to treat others, how to stand up for themselves, how to tell others what you want from them, and how to look out for and be concerned for others around you.

I miss them already. Each of these kids have taught me so much about loving and caring for others. I'm so excited to be in the early childhood education program in the fall as I will have more opportunites to work with kids. I love what I've chosen to do with my life :)

love always, karina

GIANT post :D

Considering I didn't blog the whole last month of school, I have so much to fill you in on!! But writing all the details would take me forever, so that you and I won't lose interest in this post I've added tons of pictures and I will briefly explain some of the fun things that I've done. :)

Festival of Colors- who doesn't love eating chalk? :)

But seriously, this really is fun :) this is the second year we've gone to this festival and we're not done yet! Hopefully we will get their earlier next year when everyone throws their chalk at once so we won't have to rely on the kindness of others to throw chalk in our faces :)

And of course we needed a jumping picture :)

attractive huh? yeah i know :)

Holly and I got to go to my house for Conference/Easter Weekend! The first night we were there we roaster marshmellows with my little sister and her friends. We even got to teach them some of the fun games we've learned from our friends in provo :) college is all fun :)

mmm smores :)

Holly and i fell asleep while we were all watching Peter Pan after playing games. NOT a good idea. I'm an avid sleeper during movies, but now I know that my siblings will draw on those who fall asleep :) you can kinda see the marker on my cheek in this picture haha i love my family :)

A couple of our friends sang in the choir during the Saturday afternoon session and were given tickets for their "significant others". So Holly and I got them :) haha

Look at how close our seats were!!! We were SO lucky!!! And the session was AMAZING!!!

One night we hiked the Y with some of our friends. I love that hike, especially at night when you get this amazing view!!

We also spent an afternoon playing raquetball at the rec center where one of my roommates works. I need a lot of practice, but it was really fun to play :)

Holly and I went to an OWL CITY CONCERT!!! We bought tickets for eachother as birthday presents back in December and we were anxiously awaiting this day!!! This picture was taken between squeals :D

SO wet in the Will Call line. But that couldn't get us down!!

The concert was ABSOLUTLEY THE BEST!!! We knew all of the songs and could sing the lyrics right along with him :) He was SO entertaining too!!

When Holly and I were driving home from this concert I said to her, "I can't stop smiling!!" :D We were both SO happy.

After the concert- I think we look pretty good for being rained on and squished in a hot room between strangers haha

We bought these shirts at the end of the concert. Both of them are lyrics from some of our favorite songs. Holly's says "The spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly" and mine says "Planet earth turns slowly" If you don't know Owl City, you MUST go look up his songs. Seriously they will change your life. Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt! :)

Holly and I both have our birthdays after school gets out, so we wanted to celebrate with our friends in Provo before we all went home. This night we had a birthday dinner at Olive Garden with our friends. Seriously I have some of the greatest friends. The boys were "fighting" over who got to pay for mine and Holly's dinners. :) so sweet!!!

Holly and I were sent on a scavenger hunt one night to get our birthday presents from a friend. We were driving back and for all over provo!

During Finals Week we took a break from studying to go grab some frozen yogurt with some friends :) so good...

Holly and I came back from ward prayer the last sunday we were in Provo and our roommate threw us a surprise birthday party!! it was the sweetest thing!!! I've never had a surprise birthday party before! :)

It was great to see our friends all together before we all headed out for summer :)

Yay for 20!! :)

Haha I love how my comments got shorter as the post went on. You can tell I lost some interest, but I hope you didn't!! anyways, now that I'm caught up on everything that happened in Provo, my next post will be about my summer here at home so far :) and hopefully it will be soon!

love always, karina