Ziggy Cat

Meet my favorite kitty, Ziggy :)

So, a little back sorry. Of course ;) We have been living in the same basement apartment for our entire marriage. Scott's uncle is our landlord and he's very good to us. So good to us, in fact, that he revoked his previous rule of "you get a cat you give me a $500 cleaning deposit" and GAVE us a cat. Like what?! He texted Scott a couple weeks ago asking if we wanted a cat and we were like is this a joke?! I guess they had taken Ziggy in for a friend but he wasn't getting along well with the other cat, dog, and babies that also live in the house. They figured he would probably be happier in a more chill environment so they offered him to us. After petting him for 2 minutes I decided I wanted him and we brought Ziggy home. (Read: carried him through the yard and down the stairwell to our apartment) 

I'm going to be perfectly honest, I've never had a pet and they've never really been appealing to me. Hair, poop, buying food, not being able to run away on vacation whenever you want... The list goes on. And our first night with him was rough. He pawed at our door and meowed until he got in and then climbed all over us at 2 am. And then we shut him out of our bedroom and he promptly threw up in the hallway on the carpet. I told Scott I would do one more day and he was going back. Silly Kara.

After a few days of coming home to his sweet face and petting him endlessly I fell in love with the dang cat and now I couldn't be happier. I have learned to live with the fur and only vacuum twice a week now instead of every day. That's a huge accomplishment, trust me. Also he's not allowed in our bedroom unless we're there too and I laid down a fleece blanket at the foot of our bed for him to sleep on so he doesn't ruin our expensive comforter. We are slowly finding balance in life. He's a sweet cat and I really, really love him. 

Bonuses! He's pretty old (12) so he's not super hyper and he loves to lay down wherever you are. You can pet him for hours and all he does is purr. Also he's litter box trained and hasn't had any accidents yet. AND he's already been declawed so I don't have to deal with getting scratched all the time. We opted not to change his name because he's been Ziggy his whole life and it seemed dumb to change it now. When he lays on his side he crosses his little paws and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen. I have no idea how I lived so many years of my life without this little guy! :)

DFTBA

My BFF Elise

Continuing on with sentimental things, my best friend comes home tomorrow after serving 18 months in Arizona. Not even joking.

In late February of 2013 Elise called me and we chatted like we normally did. She lived in Provo at the time and was too far to meet in person at 9:00 at night. All of a sudden she said to me, "Kara, I think we need to think about going on missions." I was sort of shocked for a minute. I certainly wasn't ready for that and my anxiety immediately kicked in. I never felt like serving a mission was right for me so I sort of just blew it off. But, deep down inside I knew she was going to do it. I knew she had been thinking about it and was ready to start the process. I knew soon my best friend would be very far away from me.

She started her papers and her mom took her shopping. It was all coming so quickly and it was crazy! Then some things happened, the paperwork wasn't coming along like it was supposed to, and she was delayed for 4 months. She was absolutely heartbroken and almost gave up completely. For her, the timing was everything. She wanted to leave in August and now she wouldn't even be able to apply until August. But she stuck with it and kept going. That took incredible faith on her part. 

In May Scott came home and we started dating and Elise was confident she was going to serve. Together we prepared for very different things but ultimately it was the temple. We were nervous and excited together for what our futures held. On September 19, 2013 she received her call to Scottsdale, Arizona and the next day Scott asked me to marry him. Again, different but equally exciting. Her report date was December 18th and we knew for sure that I would be getting married without her. That was hard.

Ever since we were little we dreamed of our weddings and of course, both of us being there. Elise loves weddings more than any girl I know. Her #1 goal in life was always to get married and I think she's got her whole wedding all planned out. I know it was hard for her knowing she was going to miss my special day. But, I told her I wouldn't want her anywhere else except for serving a mission. We both cried a bunch and spent as much time together as we could before she left. I helped her pack her suitcases and organize her things. I am so grateful for that, even though it was hard to let her go.

We promised to write every week and we did it. EVERY. WEEK. I heard from her and she heard from me. I know it has helped our friendship grow and I am so grateful we have done what we can to maintain the relationship we have. Her last email to me made me cry a whole bunch and her testimony is incredible. I want to share a little part, the part I love most. This is Elise in her most honest form-

"Kara, I cannot tell you in words how thankful I am for your commitment in writing me these emails every week. It has meant the whole worlds to me and I am so thankful that we will have these memories to look back on for years to come! I know that I missed some very important days of your life, including the most important day, but I know that our friendship has been made stronger since I have been gone. I want you to know that the only reason I knowingly chose to miss those important things is because I love my Savior so much and I had a desire to serve Him."

 If you aren't immediately jealous of me for having THIS PERSON to call my best friend, I am so sorry for you. She's amazing and I can't wait to have her back here with me. 18 months has been much too long. If you wanna see some cute pictures of us click here. It's the goodbye post I couldn't bear to write. So, you get this story now instead of then. I have seriously missed her so much.

DFTBA

Two Years

I've been feeling pretty sentimental the last couple weeks because my Timehop has been full of emotional things. Scott leaving on his mission 4 years ago, coming home 2 years ago, and planning for Alaska 1 year ago. June is a happy month and I'm so glad it's June! As I've been reading statuses from "this day in history" I can't help but just want to cry. I can feel all those same feelings again and it makes my heart pound. I have loved Scott since he was 17. I won't deny that. I was totally obsessed might have dreamed of our future together and still don't believe it's actually happening.

Right before he left we had a band council party celebrating the new council with the old one. I was so excited (and nervous) to be president and I knew Scott would have advice. For some reason he was at the party and ended up driving me home. It wasn't anything super special until we got to my driveway and we just sat there. I talked about my nerves for the coming year and he told me about never really having a "best friend". He said so many things I had never even considered being concerns of his. It really felt like I was talking to him for the very first time. And funny enough, there was a song that described exactly how I was feeling.

"We're smiling but we're close to tears, even after all these years, we just now got the feeling that we're meeting for the first time."

I posted that on my Facebook later that day and it came up on my Timehop a few days ago. It struck me and I felt everything all over again. I've always known that Scott was special. I really didn't understand why, but he was just different to me. I cared about him so much. I still do, obviously, but I'm glad I can look back at those times and realize that the friendship we had was so, so special. I wish we could go back to those days sometimes. I wish we could be young and free again without tuition and rent and a car payment. But, this stage is fun too and I'm grateful for it.

Today marks two years since the first time I saw my boy as a returned missionary. I could not believe he was actually back again. I missed him terribly and it felt so good to hug him again. But, things were different. He was so much more serious and ready to finally love me ;) We walked around Jordan Landing at 10:00 at night because that's when I got off work. He held my hand and talked and talked and talked. It was nice to finally feel like "his girl". There weren't 300 other babes I had to fight off anymore. It was just me and him and that was it. It was definitely worth the wait.

I am so glad to have had the last two years with Scott. We've had so many fun times together and I am looking forward to more. He's the best and I love him so much. I don't know where I would be without my little muffin :)

Our first picture together on our second date :)

DFTBA

Happy Spring!

We had a pretty mild winter this year but that doesn't make actual spring any less exciting. It's finally April and this semester is just flying by. In 6 weeks my brother in law will be home and then a few weeks after that my best friend will be home! Yay for missionaries but even more yay for returned missionaries! I can't wait to see both of them again so soon!

Anyway, on Tuesday to celebrate the beginning of spring I went to Temple Square with my brother and his wife and their precious little baby. Kyle and I met up after class and rode the train to Courthouse where Natalie picked us up. We headed to the temple and ended up accidentally parking under the conference center where they charge $10 if you are not there to attend the temple. Well, Natalie wasn't having that so she ended up getting herself a parking token from the front desk of the temple. She's such a funny gal :) We walked around and took some pictures! The flowers were so pretty and I was so happy to be there! 

Secret picture of the best little family!!!

 Me and my little nephew Wolife :)

I just love him so much

We wore him right out ;)

Me and my "sort of making fun of fashion bloggers" pose

Then we went to Noodles and Co. for the last day of their BOGO and then to Baskin Robins to enjoy $1.31 ice cream. It was a day full of great deals and lots of fun! Unfortunately I had to go back to school after our little adventure but I was a lot happier sitting through 3 hours of class knowing I just got to hold my favorite little nephew! :)

Get out there and enjoy the springtime!

DFTBA

Weekend Getaway!

Earlier this year Scott and I started to talk about what we were going to do for Valentine's Day and our anniversary. We discussed St. George and then decided it would be too hard for me to get four days in a row off of work so we sort of dropped the idea of going anywhere. Well, the semester began and I got super depressed so we decided we would go stay at the Little America and relax for a few days- basically exactly what we did for our honeymoon last year. I was stoked! I've been looking forward to our trip for several weeks!

Friday night we had planned to do laundry and pack so we met up at home after work. Scott surprised me with red roses and chocolate :)

Saturday morning was Valentine's day and we woke up pretty early and gave each other our presents. I got him a Utes shirt and a Nike hoodie and a card. I also wrote him 14 letters (one for each day from the 1st to the 14th) of reasons why I love him and he read the last one. He wrote me the cutest poem and gave me a little stuffed dog. He also surprised me with a ring! We had gone shopping about a week before because I wanted to pick out a few for him to choose from so that I could still be surprised but also get what I want... cause, ya know... Anyway when I opened the box I was so happy and said "YOU GOT ME THE ONE I WANTED!" and he was like "I know." I loved all three rings I picked out, but I secretly hoped I would get the ruby. Scott is such a little gem ;)

 

I absolutely love it!

We got ready and headed to Chick Fizzle for some breakfast on our way to the zoo! Neither of us had been there in forever and it was super fun! We got there a little before 10 (an hour after open) and we got a chance to see almost all of the animals active before it got too warm and crowded. I loved the lions! And teaching Scott about what makes a grizzly bear a grizzly bear. My dad would have been so proud ;)

 

By the time we left there were at least 5,000 people standing in line at the gate

 

Inside the bird room!

 

They had written Valentiney things in honey on the glass so that the bears would come over to see the people! This one was licking so much! It was adorable.

We paid (WAY TOO MUCH) to ride the train (SERIOUSLY IT'S SO LAME IT SHOULD BE FREE) and then went to the gift shop to sit down for a while. We walked around the whole zoo one more time and by 2 there were just way too many (very sweet and adorable) children to really enjoy anything. Also everything was asleep. We went to Jimmy John's for lunch and then Target for new swimming suits. We checked in to the hotel and immediately went swimming!

 

The stupid train that doesn't even take you around the zoo >:/

 

This was BEFORE we knew where the train was taking us

  

Lions sleep 20 hours a day so we were lucky to see them moving around before the left one decided it was nap time

 

They were doing tricks with the baby elephant and it was so cute! Watching them eat and drink is really neat!

We had a nice dinner at the Coffee Shop downstairs and enjoyed a bottle of sparkling cider. They were pretty busy and it was getting late, so our waitress forgot about us for like 45 minutes. We just chatted and she finally came back with the check. She was a sweet old lady :) We watched the NBA All Star Saturday events and really enjoyed the slam dunk contest. I'm happy we were able to have actual TV to watch it because otherwise we wouldn't have!

 

Hallway selfie on our way to dinner :)

Sunday was our (FIRST!) anniversary and we slept in a little bit and Scott surprised me with more jewelry. He's such a little punk. He got me a necklace and earrings to go with my ring so that I would have a whole matching set :) I gave him a watch and then later we bought him some new shoes. I wish I would have known he was going to spoil me so much! I would have tried to stop him given him more stuff. Oh whale, he's still sweet :)

 

I love it soooo much!

Also I don't have a picture of the earrings but I'm sure you can imagine yourself some ruby studs ;)

We had breakfast at Village Inn and went swimming some more. We napped and watched a couple movies and lots of episodes of Friends. It was a pretty low key day and I loved it. We watched our wedding video that was made by Scott's grandma and uncle. It's definitely not fancy but it's such a sweet keepsake. I had no idea anything would ever come of all the video grandma shot of our wedding day but I'm so glad it did! It's so fun to see everyone and remember the perfect day :) Maybe one day we'll watch the uncut version (it's like 3 hours long!) but for now the edited version makes me so happy.

I decided that I wanted to take Scott to Cheesecake Factory for our anniversary dinner so we headed off to City Creek. Since it was Sunday we didn't see much of it but we did have a short wait time and that's more important than anything. I wanted to get cheesecake SO BAD but we were just too full. :( We're definitely going back soon!

So,quick story... Scott loves to give money to sign-holders. It drives me nuts because I'm a terrible person I feel like they are just lying, so going downtown with him is not my favorite. Anyway, we had some leftover bread (cause their bread is BOMB) in a takeout box and we were sitting on the train riding back to Courthouse. A guy came up to us and started telling us his story and asking for money or food, but I knew Scott didn't have any cash so it would be up to me if we helped him or not. I was thinking, "hey, I'm never ever going to eat this bread so I might as well give it to someone who might" and I handed him the bag. I told him it was just bread but he still looked really happy. He ran away and ate it and Scott was very proud of me. It was so not a big deal but it did make me feel better than just giving random strangers $5 bills. So yay for our waiter for giving us way too much bread :)

Monday we had to check out and I was so bummed. I always hate leaving! But at least this time coming home wasn't so bad because we were already moved in to our apartment, unlike last year. We drove up by the U and ate lunch at The Pie. It was so heavenly! Then we headed for home and dropped off our stuff and went to the dollar theater by our house to see Big Hero 6. It was SUCH a cute movie! We went home and then watched more movies/TV and played some card games for the rest of the night. It was such a perfect weekend and I loved celebrating our first year of marriage. I sure am thankful for my sweet Scotty :)

 

I told him to smile cute and this is what I got. Whatever.

 As hard as it was to come home, I really love having our own little apartment to live in.

Also, Meet the Robinsons <3

DFTBA

Oh, Hey. Fall 2014

J. Willard Marriott Library 

I love the new addition of the Imagine U 

:)

So now that the semester is like half over I should probably write about it, you think? I mean I haven't been drowning in frozen fruit or homework or anything for the last two months. Anyway, moving along...

School is pretty good. I'm finally a junior which is totally awesome. My GPA has yet to take a total nose-dive into the depths of the earth and I haven't quit yet so that's good! Also I'm only 20 and I'm half way to graduating, which is even more awesome.

I have four classes. I was gonna take five and then after the first day I was like "nah man, I can't do these 12 hour days anymore." So I dropped my nutrition class that was said to be the best and easiest class offered at the U. Spoiler alert: it isn't. I think word got out that it was so easy and the school intervened and made it more "academic". Meh.

I'm taking web design! It's super fun and super frustrating. I literally have no idea what I'm doing but it's pretty cool. It takes me back to the days of MySpace when everyone was a self-taught HTML master. It's evolved so much since then. Most of the basic stuff I knew isn't even relevant anymore. I have to make a website for someone and someone else is making one for me! Because just making a 10 page site isn't hard enough, we have to collaborate with others. Comm courses, man.

I'm also taking natural disasters. Right? It's not too bad though. I was actually totally committed to dropping that one before school even started but I figured I might as well give it a shot. SO WORTH IT. No textbook and no exams. What more could you want in life?! But you have to write like a billion papers but it's whatever. I don't mind writing.

Organizational communication is probably my hardest class as far as content is concerned. My teacher is an org comm expert which makes it really easy to raise your hand and give input without being afraid of sounding like an idiot. Not. No one says a word. But my teacher is awesome. Definitely a good teacher, just very, very smart. I got an A- on my midterm paper and my group presentation though so I guess I'm learning something. It's a super interesting class and I'm glad I've waited to take it until I can appreciate it more. A few of the concepts I've seen in other comm courses I've taken, so that always helps.

My last class of the day is communication and gender. I have the biggest love-hate relationship with that class. I can't stand how much people try to mesh men and women together into one giant group. I can't stress it enough that men and women are DIFFERENT and they are DIFFERENT for a reason. But, on the other hand I really enjoy learning about the struggles faced by a lot of people and what I can do to promote gender equality in society. My teacher is wonderful. I've learned so much so far in that class... even though I have to sit and bite my tongue.

Now that fall break is over it's only going to get harder. Prepping for finals is the worst. I love not having tests in any of my classes, but sometimes all these papers and projects that are due on the same day can be harder than a fifty question exam. Oh well. I chose this life.

As far as everything else is concerned I'm doing well. Jamba is still Jamba. I moved to day shifts and I cannot praise the heavens above more. It's so nice to be done with work at 4 and come home and actually see my husband. Getting up at 5:30 is no fun but it has gotten easier. I just love this routine we're in right now. Of course I wish we less homework and more hang out time, but you gotta do what you gotta do. School two days a week and work 3 days a week is the only way to survive. Never again will I do the school 5 days a week thing. Never.

There are sooo many other things I've been doing that I wish I could write about... but alas, nope. I need to just be better at keeping up with things. It's too hard to look back and try to remember what has been going on. But we are good and I am good and I am surviving another semester. Only four more to go :)

Please enjoy these three random pictures that (sort of) fit this post:

One day it just decided to pour for one hour straight. 

Foothill flooded and so did the psychology building.

It was pure insanity.

I had no idea such rain was in the forecast.

I wore my Toms and some capris.

It was totally freezing.

I took this at Courthouse while waiting for my train.

I now have an umbrella with me at all times.

(Which I have never needed since)

Stupid Utah.

This is Scott doing math homework.

Scott is ALWAYS doing math homework.

In fact, he's doing it right now.

I have several pictures of him doing math homework.

Anyway, I love him.

I'm happy he works so hard.

This is my infamous first day of school selfie.

I wore a scarf and a cardigan.

Typical.

Also TRAX is just as lovely as I remember it.

I didn't miss that 2 hour commute.

I PROMISE I will blog something worth reading.

Sometime.

Soon.

DFTBA

Thanksgiving Point

First of all, let it be known that I'm blogging something within a week of doing it. Unheard of, I know.

Summer is coming to an end and it breaks my heart. Even though I've had roughly four months off from school it still doesn't seem like enough time. There are so many things I was planning to do that I just never got around to. But! My sisters and I wanted to make the most of our last week together so we took advantage of Thanksgiving Point's two dollar Tuesday deal! Along with every other woman and child in the Salt Lake and Utah counties. 

We headed out pretty early (8:45) (that's early for us) and got to the gardens a little after nine. It was slightly overcast and not very hot. We saw almost the whole thing before the crowds and the hot sunshine came. It was so peaceful and so beautiful. I loved all the different trees and flowers. Who knew it was so beautiful? :)

Chantel is always up to being in pictures. 

She looked so pretty with the Italian Garden :)

So many Koi fish! I thought they were going to start eating each other.

Along with not being able to wake up early, we also have the HARDEST time deciding where to eat. We sat in my car in the Firehouse Subs parking lot for 30 minutes trying to decide where to go. We finally decided to just go to Firehouse. We walked in, I took one sniff, and said "I don't like the smell here. We gotta go somewhere else." And then we ended up at Smashburger. It was a good choice.

After lunch we were gonna hit the farm! By then it was noon and everyone and their dog (child) was at TP. The line to pay to get into the farm was insane. But we waited and waited and then got to enjoy the cute animals. Even though curly haired boy kept getting in the way at the rabbit cages.

How often do you see the stereotypical black and white cow? 

Not very often.

It deserved a picture.

Feeding the little goats was my favorite part :)

Kaylee decided to be a thug that day.

SL represent.

We went on the tractor ride and the driver was so funny.

And we literally drove slower than a person walks.

But it gave us time to take selfies :)

After we said goodbye to the animals we washed up and headed over to the Museum of Ancient Life. If I've ever been there before it was a long long time ago. It was a neat place! But again, there were so many running, screaming children it was hard to look at things long or read the information plaques. We still learned a lot and enjoyed the "fossils" :) Chantel taught us what she teaches her kindergartners about dinosaurs. So it was pretty good :)

After we got out we were all pretty tired of walking but not quite ready for our day of fun to end. We decided to go see the Great White Shark 3D movie because the movies were discounted too. I accidentally fell asleep for a bit but the movie was good! I've never been a huge shark fan but when you live in Utah they aren't exactly a threat... 

We safely made it home (despite my terrible driving skills) and realized that we didn't have one single fight all day long! Even though the three of us are separated by 15 years we still tend to act like sisters do and argue over dumb things. But this day we didn't. And it was the most perfect day. And it will go down in history as one of the best days we've ever spent together. 

If you've got nothing to do the next couple Tuesdays, GO! It is super cool and the August discount is awesome. Most of the stuff regularly costs $15! The gardens were my favorite and I recommend them to anyone! 

Thanks for a fun day, sisters! I love you guys :)

DFTBA

Don't You Quit

Remember this? It seems like a thousand years ago to me.
But it was ONE year ago... roughly.
It was a recap post of miserable April.
April 2013 was easily the worst month of my entire human life.
I really, truly hit rock bottom.
It was probably so bad because I didn't know in just two short months I would be living this super fantastic moment:

Our first second date.

Cause I was too scared to ask for a picture on the first.

Ha, I should have just asked. 

Accompanied with this wonderful blog post.

I never dreamed I would be living this in five months: 

This in ten:

And this in twelve:

General Conference cuddles

:)

The point is, you should never give up because you have no idea what is going to come next. Life is FULL of amazing blessings and second chances. I know I say this a lot, but I never thought I would be where I am today. I honestly didn't think I would ACTUALLY marry Scott Simpson. I didn't think I would ACTUALLY be able to finally get my hands on a temple recommend after going so long without one. I didn't think I would ACTUALLY pick a major and stick to it. I didn't think I would ACTUALLY move out of my parent's house and survive. 

But hey, it happened. I made it happen. I worked my little tail off and look where it got me. I'm dang proud of myself. I'm dang happy with where I've gone in the last year. I wish I could go back to my little self and say, "Self! You hang in there! It's all gonna be alright!" 

Either way, I'm okay now. I'm doing okay. And that's what matters. :)

DFTBA