Oh, There Goes Gravity

Hoppy Easter!! 

Peter and I woke up late which made us late to brunch at my Aunt's House. We finally got to Tampa at 1:14 and stayed until four when we then turned around and came back to Orlando. We headed to the Hyatt Regency to meet his parents for dinner (it was delicious) and then to Disney's Boarwalk to waste time.

Back to reality tomorrow!  

Three Little Birds, Sat On My Window.

Being in Tampa makes me wish I had gotten here sooner. I wish I could have been here Thursday through Sunday. I loved spending the week with Peter and looking at apartments (and then fighting about apartments) but being home makes me wish I had spent more time here during this break.

Things are changing. My nephews seem bigger every time I come back. We applied for an apartment. I just finished applying for a transfer at work. I had to interview my old manager for an assignment. It all just feels surreal. I'm nostalgic for 2012 when I didn't have a car and I was new to my job and my nephews were little. I also miss not being interrogated by literally all the adults that I know every time I see them. I LOVE that they care enough to ask but lately, all the adults in my life ask a lot of questions that make me want to pass out. The future is scary. I'm pretty sure it is bright but right now there is a window between me and that brightness and I'm just not quite ready to open that window.

How Wonderful it is to Know You

My handwriting is terrible so I chose to type my grandmother's birthday present rather than hand write it as recommended. Like most grandmothers, mine has been here for my whole life. She was there when I was little as a babysitter, a helper, a friend, and a visitor. She's been there as a matriarch, a mentor, and a story teller. She's here now as a gift giver, a teacher, and someone who loves to give hugs and kisses ( and chocolate!!) to her many grandchildren. My grandmother is a special person to me and I am so excited to dedicate this post to her.

Today was her actual birthday but tomorrow she will be surrounded by nearly 40 individuals (family and church friends) who love her dearly. All she asked for to celebrate the monumental occasion is for us to recap our fondest memories with her. When my aunt relayed that message, I was a little stuck. I wasn't entirely sure what to recount as my fondest memory of my grandmother and I; they're all amazing! I can remember going to her house and (badly) playing the piano or singing and dancing or showing her my gymnastics skills. I remember her coming to every single grandparents day during elementary school and eating the gross breakfast my school would give her. I remember her teaching me how to blow kisses and give bear hugs. I remember going to her house with my mom and then getting to stay and watch Benji (and then beg her to let me borrow it for the rest of the week). I have so many fond memories of being with my grandmother. The first one that I thought of though was a day when my mother and I were grocery shopping and I found my grandmother in the store. My mother had sent me to grab something so I turned the corner to head down the freezer isle and there was Gran! I was so excited to see her and for some reason the concept of "Gran is in the grocery store while I am in the grocery store and we didn't drive here together" was just too much for my little brain to compute. I begged her and my mother to let me go home with her and after a little convincing, they said yes. I got to check out with my grandmother and help her put the groceries in the. I couldn't tell you what we did once we got back to her house but I can guarantee that it was awesome :)

Happy Birthday Gran, love you!

Holly Jolly Christmas

And I'll also write this tomorrow when I am actually conscious because today has been a very long day.

Today started around 8 in the morning which isn't necessarily early but when you go to bed at like... 1:30 it is a little difficult. My nephew ran in and said "Kate! Kate! Wake up, it's Christmas!" like your average 6 year old should and then we all walked down stairs to open all the gifts that Santa brought us. I'm not going to sit here and list all of the nonsense that I was gifted but I will say that everything is useful except for the massive box of chocolate.

The big deal was my nephew's first video game console which is a Wii U and he sat there and played for 6 hours AND wouldn't let me leave because he "needed [my] help to defeat the bad guys." He was playing Skylanders, bad guys aren't really bad guys. Anyway, I had to sit there and help his little 6 year old brain figure out how to work it and what all the buttons do and what the point of the goals are. THIS IS SO MUCH MORE EXHAUSTING THEN YOU WOULD THINK! I don't understand how teachers can teach children anything because he did not want to learn. He just wanted to be able to do. We figured it out though, just in time for me to start getting ready for the big dinner.

Most years we invite the section of the family that we don't see on Christmas Eve over for dinner on Christmas day which we did this year as well. We mingled and had a really awesome dinner for a combined five and a half hours which is interesting because there were only 8 people in the house. Never the less, we shared stories of holidays passed and we talked about my mom. Those topics weren't necessarily Christmas-y but they were definitely entertaining!

 I hope everyone else had good Christmas! Now if we can all get though New Year's we should all be golden.

Christmas Eve Festivities

Last year I was not able to participate in the Christmas Eve shopping at my job because of my foot which was prohibiting me from standing for that long. This year my toe did not put up as much of a fight so I was cleared to stand. Can I just say that some people are just not smart? If someone you know asked for something that has literally been one of the top ten items the last two Christmases, why would you wait until Christmas Eve Day to try and find it for them? I just don't understand. Anyway, working on Christmas Eve was interesting. I made mini pumpkin pies for everyone to snack on while they were at work so I hope everyone had some and ended up having a great Christmas!


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After work it was time to get ready for something that has been a Christmas Eve tradition in my family since the day I was born. For 22 years we have been going to one of my aunt's houses on Christmas Eve, nearly forty people every year travel to one house where we spend like 6 hours eating and talking and listening to the kids put on a show. This year we walked in to photographers huddling us all around my grandmother who is the matriarch of our family. Twenty five minutes later we finally had a decent enough picture for the photographer to wish us a Merry Christmas and head to his own Christmas Eve festivities. Soon it was time to eat and we gathered in a room to listen to my uncle talk for what we soon learned was the last time. A tradition that has been in my family since before I was born ended today and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Of course, I understand the logistics of why it ended and the reasons and whatnot but that doesn't stop me from being sad about not being able to see all of my cousins at Christmas. Or feeling sorry for the kids who attended since they were born and will not longer be able to make memories like I did when I was their age.

I am sure someone will take over this tradition although I am not sure who it could be. Maybe I can fit all forty of us in my college apartment.

Vegetable Pot Pie

Yesterday was full of good things which I had hopes would continue through today. Knows kind of correct. My day did not start early with laundry and packing duties like I had planned. Instead, my phone ended up under my bed so instead of waking me up it just made me mad that I couldn't find it. So when I found it,  I hit snooze. Rather I thought I did because I slept for two hours before being locked in my room by my broken door knob for another two hours. It is safe to say I was not able to get any more laundry done.

The rest of the day was spent doing odd ball things like sitting with my nephew at his dentist appointment and trying to explain to him how to play with an Xbox controller as well as planning an impromptu sleepover with Catherine and helping her making vegan vegetable pot pie with homemade biscuits! Bread dough has an awful texture just so everyone knows. 

Happy Thanksgiving Day

We went to my Aunt Linda's and saw most of the family members. Anderson learned he likes pumpkin pie. A bunch of my family members called me Snow White. Everyone likes my tribal print dress that I hated. I ruined my boots.

Chocolate's Molecular Structure

I got to have a lovely visit with my grandmother today and she gave me this really awesome windbreaker!! The front looks pretty cool too considering it has the right logo on it but the back is my favorite part.

I haven't had a ton of time to visit my grandmother since I have been home so I was glad to have been able to visit with her. We talked about family and construction, the events that happened yesterday, her family history, and recapped my sisterhood retreat to Eufala last spring. Pretty much everything except the molecular structure of chocolate.

November Means Elections

It is a pretty common thing for my birthday to fall right around Election Day. Or on Election Day. It happens. My household can go from "yay wooo birthday festivities" to " YOU'RE AN IDIOT IF YOU BELIEVE THIS PARTY'S BELIEFS!" very quickly. As usual it happened against Olay because of the election results and how some people weren't able to vote/why I didn't vote. Things got a little better once the results started coming out but it still seemed like an off day.

Heading to Orlando

I was lucky enough to be blessed with a manager who understands that things come up and who is willing to work with me  and switch shifts so that I can end up in Orlando when I need to be there. You are a beautiful human and I am so SO grateful for all of your help this weekend!

 I finished worked at 4:45 and we immediately headed to Orlando so that the family could experience their first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We ended up staying at Disney's Contemporary Resort so that it was easy to get to Magic Kingdom. However, when we checked in they did not have all the MNSSHP tickets ready. This meant that we would have to spend about 20 minutes waiting in the guest relations line acquiring said tickets before we could go to the event. Afterwards we made a stop at town hall and then we made a stop at Casey's so that my sister could find something to eat. We tried to encourage the older of my nephews to come with Snow White (me) and watch the parade. Our attempts at fun were met with adamant "no"s and stern refusals. This kid hate parades. 

We finally made it to some Trick or Treating spots which meant that I ended up not being able to see Celebrate the Magic (IT IS THE MAIN REASON I GO TO DISNEY WORLD) and then we ended up on the Dumbo Ride during WISHES. This is when we discovered that the older of the two also HATES fireworks. Like hates them to the point of being on the Dumbo ride and sobbing every time one of them made the booming sound.

We calmed him down enough to get him to go on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train which he also hated and was very scared by. More Trick or Treating and some other rides and then the night got better. We finally went home and I took a shower in order to sleep in a little be more before the big interview!

Our Blanket Fort

"Inside every adult is a child who never grew up"

On Friday night I promised my nephew that I would build him a real fort after I saw that he had tried to make one out of pillows and stuffed animals. And what Aunt Kate says, Aunt Kate does!!

Back in the day, my friends and I would make blanket forts ALL THE TIME! I'm a master blanket fort builder if I do say so myself but I hadn't made one in like 7 years prior to today. I've still got the power though and he's completely obsessed with it! We eventually turned it into our spy/super hero head quarters and proceeded to battle invisible foes for three hours. This is also something I haven't done in about 7 years. I had wind and lightning powers as well as some MMA fighting skills while he was the leader of our super troupe and possessed this nifty little Marvel light up watch that he believed granted him any power he wanted.

Eventually our super hero selves were out of villains to fight and we had to go eat dinner. Afterwards, I did today's ab challenge and it was not fun. 55 sit ups is way more of a problem than I expected it to be and it is because I have been doing them wrong my entire life. The 65 crunches for today weren't too bad and nether was the plank. Leg lifts are the source of all evil. 

Storyline challenge "If I could change the world..."

I would change it so that no child is ever without a family or a home. 

Just So Jittery

I have been fighting concert jitters all day. I wasn't nervous the last time I met Hunter so I don't understand why I am getting  antsy now anyway. Agdhfkgij. 

Anyways, today was basic. I went to work with no make up on, came home and played with my nephew/watched the Land Before Time, had dinner (Carabba's mashed potatoes=da bomb), and then lounged about for two hours. 

That's when the nervousness really started to kick in. That is also when I realized I had stuff to make for tomorrow which required digging through all of my still packed boxes to find 6 Hunter related items. I have no life. 

The Little Things

The phrases: " Kid's say the darnedest things" and "out of the mouth of babes" have been resonating with me a whole bunch now that I've been home for a while. I missed so much of my nephew's 6 years being at school and thats just how life goes. He's not my son obviously but he might as well be like a brother when  you look at my family dynamic. Regardless, he says some pretty awesome stuff and the kid doesn't forget anything. He also get's really funny when I leave to go somewhere without the family. For example, yesterday I left his presence around 12 and didn't see him until this morning. In those 24 hours, allhe did  was ask where I was and when I would be back. In previous situations he has wondered what I was going to eat where ever I was and if I was going to like it. 

What causes me to write this though is the fact that he gave me a present today. Yesterday he had to sit through his brother's speech therapy. He gets a prize  for doing this. He saw that there were two of something and he ran back to the therapist and asked if he could have both because he wanted to "give one to my aunt Kate." They were matching Olaf sticker's because he hears me singing Frozen songs from work all the time.

Also today he gave me a complete run down of my schedule for the next three days which includes:

"You're going to work today? I though that was tomorrow? Oh wait, you work tomorrow too. And then the next day you get to see your rockstar friend [he's referring to Hunter Hayes] and then you come home and then you go to work right?"

He can't read but he know's my schedule almost better than I do.

Friends Like Family

Monday and Tuesday's seem to be break days and that is perfectly fine with me. I ended up staying at Sparkle Doodle's house until almost 1:30 am so I came home and passed out until 12:30 today. I can sleep like nobody's business. 

He is one of my friends that I have known and kept around since elementary school. There are only three and it is probably better that way. Upon realizing this just know I am a little blown away. I have three friends that I have known for more than half of my life. That's crazy. I don't really talk to anyone from my middle school and I have maybe another four "like family" friends from high school. 

Anyway, I was able to go visit another one of those "like family" friends today. When I say "like family" I mean I practically assimilated into her family. Her name is Alexis and I have known her since third grade. We practically lived at each other's houses kids and her family was kind and generous and awesome enough to take me on family vacations with them when my mom got sick. Before coming to live with my sister, Alexis' family was one of my main support systems in dealing with my mother's issues. I didn't really have a primary family and they became that at certain times. Of course they weren't the only ones. I had my sister's father, his wife and his step daughter to fall back on at their farm. I also had my best friend of 16 years and her mother to go to. I mean I frequently and openly call her mom "Mom" it is just kind of a thing. But this is about Alexis. Since high school I have had issues hanging out with her as much as I used to. I just always got so busy and so sidetracked with how quickly my life was happening that I would forget to call her back or I didn't have time to call her back. And then I would feel awful. This only continued in college but I'm hoping I can make up for it now that I'm home for a good chunk of time.

Racing the Clock

I'm racing clock in many different aspects of life. Lets count down shall we? 

I have:

- 9 days until I take the G.R.E.

-12 day until I say goodbye to my sorority 

- 20 days until graduation

- 22 days until I move back home

- 51 days until Hunter Hayes

- 263 days until I finish my blog.

Okay, the last one is a stretch but I figured I'd throw it in there. These next three weeks are going to be intense and what made me realize how quickly this has all gone by were some of the conversations I had with family members I talked to today. They all told me how proud they were to see me get to where I am today. Some of them are even experiencing achievements of their own (SO EXTREMELY PROUD OF THOSE BY THE WAY!!) and I don't want to miss out on anything. 

You have all the time you give yourself. I need to start using mine wisely.

Last Day Home

I spent my last day with family and friends. First the family and I went to lunch at this sandwich place which is always yummy. Then I was able to watch my two nephews run amuck in the play area at the mall where I work. After walking around with them for an hoy I met up with my friend Ilana and we proceeded to look for formal dresses to no avail.  We did however find chocolate an this adorable little clip on hat! 

When I got home I cuddled with the eldest nephew because he is a tad upset about me living for two more months. His brother soon surprised all by picking up a sippy cup of water and drinking out of it like he invented the act. This is a very big deal considering this three year old cant talk, chew, or feed him self. We are all very excited for his new found skill! 

Even though I know I'll be back before I know it, it is hard to think about being away agin. I don't want to leave. I want to be able to see the boys grow up and I want to be involved. Hmph. School is all most done!

All New Things

Today was a pretty bland day in the grand scheme of things. It was full of new things both physical and experiential.

My nephew would not let go of me today. He would not stop wanting to play or cuddle or giggle or anything. He's always loved to climb on me but this level is new. It's adorable and I love it but its new and it will take some getting used to.

I bought Catching Fire because I didn't have a reason not to. I bought a bunch of new bras (TMI? EH you'll be fine) which is honestly the best thing I've bought in a while. There was a new episode of Teen Wolf, I was able to finalize my plans for another concert I want to go to, and now I have a sore throat. Joy. I think that sums it up. New Things. Yay.

Away From School

"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go" - the Seven Dwarves- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Today was the first day of my last undergraduate spring break. What did I do? I had a road trip back home with one of my sisters, cuddled with one of my nephews, went to work (WORK IS A MAGICAL PLACE WHERE YOU SING DISNEY SONGS ALL DAY) and now I'm home.

I already love spring break even though all I've done is work so far. While at work I made three people ridiculously happy and I got some awesome news that involves a one year pin and becoming a "regular" EEEKKKKKK THIS IS SO AWESOME !! In your best Rapunzel Voice: "THIS JA SO MUCH FUNNNNN!!! BEST DAY EVER!"

Growing the Family

Now before any one thinks that I'm getting married or having a child let me tell you that's not the case. When I say family I am referring to the family that I've made here in my home away from home. The family that my big and grand big helped to grow has really expanded this semester with two of my littles taking littles!! It's so exciting!! I'm so incredibly thrilled to welcome them to the family and to get to know them :)

Besides all of the sorority excitement that happened today I was also able to play with a chinchilla and mess around with fake eyelashes. What was I supposed to do? Clean my room, study for my personality test, read, watch a movie for another one of my classes and work on my final project for my internship. 

I've made questionable life choices. I'm okay with this.

Ties that Bind

Today was my last day home, presumably for another two or three months. I enjoy going home but I won't lie and say I would rather be staying at my house over going back to my school. I just don't like being stuck in my house and that is pretty much all I did over the break due to my foot. I love my family, despite all of our drama and everything that we have been through. We've been able to over come so many tests and trials and losses. There is no way I would be able to have gotten this far with out them and though I don't say it nearly as often as I should, each one of them knows I love them and appreciate each lesson they've taught me. Which is a large amount if you were wondering. My family on my mother's side alone is around forty people.

Leaving isn't an easy thing for me even though I am excited to go back to school.  My heart breaks everytime I have to leave my nephews and tell them I'll be back soon. They are so little and all I can think about are all of the things I won't be there to see. I wasn't raised by my parents, I was raised by myself and my sibling. All I want to do is be a big part of my nephews' life the way their parents were a part of mine. 

Leaving also reminds me of all the family members I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with every break. Aunts, cousins, my grandmother. The categories don't do the amount of people I failed to appropriately interact with justice.  As I get older and pay more attention to my surroundings family becomes more and more important to me. While it hurts to leave then behind for another semester I have to remind myself that I am going back to anoter family at school. My roommates, sorority sisters, friends and coworkers make up my pseudo family while I am away. I'm going to try to look at it as though I am not leaving my family behind but rather seeing more of them.

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