I'm officially 37 weeks pregnant, and the time can't go by any slower. Although most SLPs in my district took the summer off before resuming work last week, I was one of three SLPs who worked the extended school year summer program. I'm not returning to work for the next school year, so I decided I might as well. But the summer program was only a few hours a week for four weeks of the summer, and then it was over.  So most of my summer consisted of moving to our new apartment, decorating and organizing it, visiting with family members who came in town here and there, and, well, being pregnant. It really does feel like an occupation sometimes, with how much effort it takes just to do simple things. My sleep schedule is WACK. Currently it's a vicious cycle of getting sleepy during the day, falling asleep for a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening, being WIRED at night and not being able to go to bed before 2 AM, then sleeping in till 10:30 or 11:30....and so it continues. Dallin's friends will hear my voice over Discord and be so confused how/why I'm still awake, since usually I go to bed hours before Dallin. But I figure why try to fix my sleep schedule when the baby will have me on an even wackier sleep-wake cycle? 

A few other things have happened this summer:

• My high school friend Hayden got married at an art museum, and it was absolutely lovely.  The next day Hayden toured the rest of us around the local aviary.
  

• I went paddle-boarding with my BYU friend Haylee. It was a very windy day and I was glad I didn't fall off the paddle board, because there is no way I could have climbed back on with my big belly! Afterwards we enjoyed ice cream and were able to talk and catch up on the years we have missed together.
• My cousin Paige had her baby, and now I am SO anxious for my baby to arrive. Some babies are born looking a little squishy from their delivery, but Paige's baby is so cute and perfect.
• Dallin's sister Olivia moved up here, and she has come over a few times.  The Urness parents also fly up a lot to work on rebuilding the house that burned down. Over two years later, it is so close to being done!
• We got a text that Dallin's brother Cooper fell off a ladder and dislocated and broke his wrist. This is within the same year that Cooper had appendicitis AND also tore his knee followed by a really complicated surgical recovery that ended in some level of sepsis.  When we found out about his wrist we were just like, you have to be joking.  

 

• Dallin and I went to a Tabernacle Choir concert with our friends Kenzie and Connor, who we haven't seen in ages since they moved. 

 

• My friend Chantel called me about a seriously injured kitty she found on her way to work, likely hit  by a car. He was calm and had no open wounds but had very limited mobility--we were concerned about paralysis. I picked up the kitty from her and took the poor little baby to my house to rest quietly on a soft blanket in my bathroom while called I around multiple rescues and organizations. I tried to assist him in getting water or eating softened food, but he was uninterested.  I was worried a shelter would euthanize without giving him a chance, but after waiting an hour for Best Friends to open at noon, I discovered they only had automated messages on the phone and it took way too long to figure out they don't even typically take animals from the public. It was the same for every other rescue, and I couldn't even get an actual human on the phone to tell me the best place to take him. This poor little guy needed treatment. But of course all the shelters in the valley closed at noon for a 1-2 hour lunch break.  Because of where my friend found the kitty and after being assured by their website that they try to avoid euthanasia whenever they can, I decided to take him to the shelter thirty minutes south of me. I gently placed the kitty in the carrier, trying hard not to jostle him too much even though he never acted in any way to indicate pain. The girl at the front desk of the shelter was very kind and gave me the intake number to call back in case he was able to be treated and adopted by me or a friend.  She said the vet would evaluate him and see what the best thing would be for him. I gave the intake number to Chantel and told her she was welcome to call.   I realized that it was likely not going to be a happy ending, and Chantel realized this too.  We hoped that the injuries weren't as severe as they appeared, and even then we'd both seen Instagram accounts of paralyzed cats going on to live happy lives...but we also knew that these outcomes were unlikely.  The vet ultimately decided to help this sweet little kitty pass over to the next life.  Chantel and I wish there is more we could have done for him, but at the end of the day we are grateful he didn't have to suffer a worse death, which is what would have happened had Chantel not found him. 
• 
  
  
  
  • My cats don't know it, but they are enjoying their last few weeks of the quiet. Arlo loves laying on my belly and Atticus too has been increasingly snuggly. It could be because he is no longer a kitten, or it could be all my pregnancy pheromones. People keep saying, "Aww, I bet your cats will be so cute with your baby," but honestly I'm just hoping they can tolerate him, haha. I'm aware that babies come with a lot of weird new sounds and smells! 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  We got a cat backpack since the cats are no longer allowed outdoors--the location of our new apartment is not safe for kitties!

  
  

  We got a automatic cat feeder so that the cats would stop waking me up in the mornings, but instead Atticus has learned that if he knocks the feeder over or even drags it around, he can get some extra kibbles out of this. Of course then it doesn't go off because it's unplugged, and he wakes me up anyway.

  
  
  
  
   
   

bonus picture of Rachel & I's favorite creature to ever walk this earth

Today proved nothing extraordinary.  Just another March day, not lacking in moments of boredom nor frustration.  But yet it was good, and that is the sweetness if life.  That we can be uplifted by dumb, completely ordinary things, like:

• the smell of smoke intertwined with rain
• daily jogs and ab workout videos
• the 50¢ gala apple from the vending machine, smothered in PB and shared with Rachel 
• getting fist bumped by new acquaintances from the ward
• getting an A on the 100-question anatomy exam which I had dedicated my life to studying
• {speaking of anatomy, who would have ever thought that queasy Kate would suddenly be holding human hearts or intestines?}
• talking to my mom on the phone  
• realizing surname spelling errors on ancestral documents which, once corrected, lead to wonderful genealogical finds
• reading German fairy tales out of my Grimm Brothers' book

  What I love about college is that you can choose your own schedule.  This week, aside from going to class till 11 AM and working on online classes for several hours a day, I've:

• gone to the beach for an hour or two every day
• talked with Tyler Ray on the phone for three hours before he left on his mission to Mexico
• set up to get a new passport for my own mission
• packed and repacked my suitcase four times {not kidding you}
• partied it up at a dance that was so hot that the windows were fogged up and everyone's clothes were completely saturated and my hair went from ringlets to straight but everyone was impressed by my sparkly five-inch platforms so it's ok
• eaten way too much ice cream
• spent two hours looking at pictures of Rachel and I when I only meant to find one
• shopped for Christmas presents and missionary clothes
• watched the Seasiders score 100 points and win the basketball game
• stayed up till 3:30 with friends playing "what are the odds" and been quite shocked at what some people are willing to do at the flip of a coin {I'll leave it at that}
• started tutoring sessions with this cute young lady from the MTC who served in my same mission; she taught me how to say a prayer in German
• been otherwise scatter-brained because all I can do is think about is Christmas

Today I went on a run for the first time in much too long.  It's the first day of October and back home the beginning of my favorite time of the year.  After jogging a while, I stopped at the Point and just sat down by myself for the next twenty minutes, engulfed in darkness on the sea-cliff.  The waves were angry, the wind was fierce, and under a blanket of stars I had nothing but the noise of my own cluttered thoughts. I'm not sad, I mused, but I yearn for something my tongue has yet to discover a word for.
  On the very edge of the ebony horizon I noticed a sliver of orange light, like a ship ablaze on the sea.  Surprised, I realized as the clouds drifted away that it was a blood moon, huge and half-sinking in the water.  And then ever so slowly it began to float up into the heavens, emerging from the surf and adorning the clouds with light.  As it ascended, its fire died out and its color muted, but it's brightness did not fade.    
  If I could sprout wings, I would take off and glide through life with that same purpose and grace, illuminating the dark world around me.  But I am still just the same girl watching quietly from the edge of the cliff.  

     Today has been a very good day-- although busy with school, it started off with getting emails from a special someone who still says "you're gorgeous"-- even from Illinois-- and ended with FHE games at some friends' ward.  In between, I sketched for homework, met my cute South Korean roommate who is finally moving in after a month, ate lots of veggies {I seriously can't get enough}, and worked out {500 crunches + 100 calf raises + 100 squats + 100 situps + 100 high knees + 100 jumping jacks + 40 pushups + 10 clap pushups + 1 minute handstand with stomach against the wall  + 1 minute plank + 1 minute candlestick all followed by some real good stretching and I feel FABULOUS}.
    Have you ever thought about what you would do without the ability to read and write?  Not only is so much of our culture founded off assumed literacy, but whether I'm at school, doing homework, or entertaining myself, my eyes are always flitting from left to right.  As a fourth-grader my life plan was to be a famous author, so my little heart would've melted upon hearing my Critical Inquiry professor complimenting the writing skills in my essay.  He commented that he was raising the bar for me because of it and hoping that I could find an outlet for such potential talent.  Oh, I was grateful! and informed him that I am writing a book and am also an avid blogger.  Without home responsibilities, I spend a lot of time evolving the ideas for my novel, and although it is so much harder than I ever anticipated, it's a work in progress and I love every minute of it.
      On the subject of blogging, I am so happy that I decided to start this blog over seven years ago.  Over the summer I dedicated weeks to organizing and condensing it all {the end of fifth grade up to high school graduation} into the physical format of a 400-large-paged-tightly-spaced book. Having the pleasure of flipping through almost a decade of precious memories that would've otherwise been lost is unbelievably satisfying, although I'm almost convinced that my dad loves it more than I do {church is just one example of the places he has brought it to show people}.  These days, I keep a little booklet with me at all times to write other, more personal  senior year/summer memories that I'd rather not share on the Internet.  The hippocampus is quite an incredible little feature our brains have, and the way our memories can store so much information continues to marvel me.  I'll have totally forgotten something and then randomly it will just resurface in my mind!   If I'm counting correctly, Dallin asked me out for the first time a year ago this week, so there have been plenty of souvenirs my memory has yielded up.  Seriously, to anyone at all reading this, I beg you to write down your memories like I do, no matter how insignificant they may seem at the time, because you'll only start to miss they when they fade away. 
On a totally random note, my friend told me that a guy she was with commented on how different my face looks from the average girl.  It was all complimentary, but here's a fun fact for y'all: I'm 1/32 Native American, and during a trip to Texas last year, my great-grandmother pointed out that I had the same face shape as herself, my grandfather and  my mother.  We all inherited it from our ancestor, a Creek Indian who was born on the Trail of Tears.  How interesting that, despite my blood being almost full-majority European, genes would work in a way to have a person from each generation display a rare physical feature of such precious and tragic heritage.   

• getting 100% on my first exam and 96% on my first essay
• staying up till 3:20 re-watching season 1 of reign 
• stealthily running around the campus with some guys playing laser tag
• having spontaneous dance parties with a friend group on the beach followed by a game of psychologist
• hawaiian night skies: an eternal array of glittering galaxies and shooting stars, the purest i've ever seen
• vanilla ice cream mixed with peanut butter and cinnamon sugar {curse the cafeteria for having at least three dessert options every single meal. my goal is to go off sugar starting now.}
• art history class
• the way it feels after a cold shower after a long run
• thursday mornings spent unwinding alone on the beach and the tug of the waves on your skin
• waking up on mondays to a ding and an email notification on my phone 
• the endless variety of exotic flowers, the synchronized movements of bird flocks, and the snails that are longer than my hand 
• waking up and remembering dreams about people from my old life
• having absolutely zero obligations on the weekend because i got my homework done ahead of time
• surfing youtube for either instrumental zen playlists or nostalgic soundtracks of broadway shows or lovely acoustic covers or just some good ole' strong-beat pop hits {the mood is always changing}
• playing with watercolors {i don't know where to find a plastic cup so i have to do it at my sink}
• getting snapchats from my siblings
• finding forgotten summer sibling photos
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      

• If the can opener doesn't open the can right, don't try to pry it open yourself.  It won't cut the fingers you're pulling at it with because you {think you} are being careful, but it will fly back and slice one of your other fingers you were holding the body of the can with. BUT if you do happen to give yourself a bloody mess all over the place by slicing your finger, it's a great photo opp for your photography final project. Also if someone gives you flowers and they die that is another lovely chance for shots.
• If you stayed up super late all week, then the next week you won't be able to fall asleep before midnight on any given night and you will become one of those restless sleepers who flails and tries to cuddle with her {very-not-pleased} sister she's sharing a bed with because guests are in town.
• If your mom decides to have the cleaning ladies over before the guests come, don't go tanning outside just to stay out of their way. Chances are they will start mopping and you will get trapped in your backyard for 2.5 hours.  Then you will get a sunburn.  Yes, once the redness wares off you will find yourself fabulously tanner than the darkest foundation your family owns, but still sunburns are no bueno for your health. Seriously the Arizona sun is so intense we started swimming in March, and just to test it out I spread the hem of my suit across the middle of my stomach and checked 5 minutes later to find that there was a visible color difference.
• If your hair is dried out, mix up any concoction of conditioner/mayo/avocado/banana/olive oil/coconut-butter/honey/egg/apple-cider-vinegar/baking-soda/whatever-stuff-you-have-on-hand-that-the-internet-approves and leave it in your hair for a few hours.  Your sisters will make crazy fun of you but when you wash it out, although it's a tangled mess and the texture feels weird when it's wet, the minute it dried IT WILL FEEL LIKE THE PUREST OF SILKS. 
• If you think fake crying on stage will contribute to the scene, don't do it.  Not only will your contacts be fuzzy and your eyes kill from staring at the light, but it will trigger you to actually feel really depressed and tired.  And the worst of it?  If you ask anyone in the audience, they won't even have noticed the tears.

When we were in Mexico and Adam STILL had brown hair for the prince in Into the Woods.  They said it would wash out in two weeks, instead it lasted probably six months.

That time Olivia's arms were dying because she decided to be the Statue of Liberty for the Constition Week Fair. Last year we got POGO passes, which meant free/discount aquarium, zoo, rockwall climbing, paintball, trampolines, bowling, etc.

In the fall when we went to the farm with the corn maze and other such activities.

Cuttin' Footloose.

That time I forgot it's no longer cool to dress up for Halloween so I dressed up like a doll.

Eric 2012

Cause the year the Myan calender ended was apparently a very interesting time in his life.